|
|
||
Date published: 1/9/2007
Here are four questions related to global warming, especially for those in denial: (1) Does the atmosphere contain carbon dioxide? (2) Does atmospheric carbon dioxide influence global temperature? (3) Will that influence be enhanced by the addition of more carbon dioxide? (4) Have human activities led to a net emission of carbon dioxide? It would be interesting to find out which of these questions people like Patrick Michaels, the "state climatologist" of Virginia, answer "no," because this would be the point at which these people choose to part company with basic physics ["No, Virginia, the sky is not falling," Dec. 3]. It's past time to cut the horse feathers about the debate on the existence of global warming. Debate seems to exist only in the media (with the help of certain people in high places), and it's time the media stopped behaving like the public relations arm of the fossil-fuel lobby. Peter Swindells Stafford
Carbon dioxide is only 1/3 of one percent of air. If all the CO2 were removed from the air, the earth would be a chilly minus 18 C. We don't know how hot it will be when we double the CO2 in the air (around mid-century), but probably around 2 C hotter.
What is important is "runaway global warming," where a warming earth emitts FAR MORE greenhouse than humans. NASA scientist Dr Hansen says a temperature rise of 1.8 C will cause runaway global warming by melting the permafrost too fast.
|
|
|||||||||||
