Warm THIS!

[Riot]

Originally Posted by sham

Let's put the UN-IPCC data to an analysis. The atmosphere currently contains 0.038% or 380 parts per million (ppm) CO2. Each year, humans put about 3% of the CO2 into the atmosphere while 97% comes from natural sources such as the oceans and decaying plant matter.

The most important part of this post is that humans have increased the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere by about 2.91% over normal.

And the +/- margin of error of the earth's management of excess CO2 appears not to be able to handle that increase.

So I don't see where humans have a choice in doing something.

Yes, the "how" matters. But I sure don't see why we in the USA should ignore our US contribution even though it's smaller than other countries.

Technical point, the oceans absorb CO2 from the atmosphere (which is why the oceans are becoming more acidic, and coral reefs are dying as a result, the excess CO2 the oceans are trying to absorb from our increase in the gas)

How am I missing the boat as to how a tiny portion of a trace gas added my man to the Earth's atmosphere can cause global catastrophe?

Hard to believe, isn't it? It is easy to see how we ruin the air quality of a particular city, and of specific streams, and of the ocean close to shore. It's right there and we can see and touch it and breath it and cough and choke.

But multiply that by the population growth and spread of industrial growth of the earth, and there you go - we are now influencing the environment of the entire planet.