If Just The Rising Man-Made CO2 Emission Is What Causes It ✓ Solved

If just the rising man-made CO 2 emission is what causes th

Current Events Conversations are slightly less formal than your Group Debates. Students still need to use proper grammar and writing techniques. Responses should be complete, well thought out, and presented in a logical manner. A minimum of one paragraph is required for this initial posting. You are not required to support your post with references, but you are encouraged to include images, graphics, links to videos, and so on to create a more dynamic submission. Topic of Conversation: If just the rising man-made CO 2 emission is what causes the Global Warming? Critical thinking at the free university - free from state, market and profit. Pro-global warming lobby insists that it is now CO2 which is driving the rise in temperature with no hard evidence to support this illogical premise. On the contrary, temperatures rose fairly rapidly from about 1900 to 1940 but then declined until the late 1970s during a period when CO2 emissions were rising in the post-war industrial boom.

According to satellite data, following peak temperatures in 1998 there has been no warming of statistical significance in spite of a further increase in CO2 emissions. 95% of greenhouse gas is water vapour, CO2 is a relatively minor constituent making a marginal contribution to the greenhouse system. Studies acknowledge that rises in CO2 concentrations have a warming influence but that it is logarithmic, i.e., the first 20 parts per million have the most effect but thereafter the influence wanes to negligible by the time the current 393 parts per million are reached. CO2 concentrations have been much higher in the past. CO2 is beneficial for promoting plant growth which is important if we are to feed the growing global human population without destroying our environment. Below 150ppm nothing would grow and we'd all die. Dutch growers buy CO2 to increase concentrations in their greenhouses to increase crop yields. So it seems perverse to describe a basic building block of life on earth as a pollutant.

Finally, while acknowledging that the earth’s climate is a complex system with millions of variables, the correlation between solar activity and temperature appears much more compelling. Why are we always talking just about CO2 affecting the global warming while there are some other atmospheric processes that strongly affect climatic changes causing the opposite effect? Global Cooling vs Global Warming. The scientist Axel Michaelowa from the Hamburg Institute of International Economics, Germany published the interesting scientific results in the paper Limiting Global Cooling after Global Warming is Over — Differentiating Betw ... pdf dedicated to this problem Current climate policy does not take into account that, after greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced to an extent that atmospheric concentrations stabilise and then start to fall, natural decay of greenhouse gases will lead to a global cooling phase spanning several centuries. This cooling will lead to damage to humans and ecosystems that depends on the rate of temperature change. Current climate policy should thus concentrate on the reduction of short- and medium-lived greenhouse gases, while exempting long lived gases. This reduces the cooling rate.

Another policy option is to sequester carbon in geological reservoirs that allow controlled release in the future. Nobody have asked themselves, if there are some other, more strong atmospheric disbalance in large cities affecting the climatic change compared to the global warming caused by anthropogenic CO2 that is mostly produced by the human population just in these cities. Answer this question after reading the article Temperature Inversion Layers. Temperature inversion layers are significant to meteorology because they block atmospheric flow which causes the air over an area experiencing an inversion to become stable. This can then result in various types of weather patterns. More importantly though, areas with heavy pollution are prone to unhealthy air and an increase in smog when an inversion is present because they trap pollutants at ground level instead of circulating them away. London’s Great Smog and Mexico’s similar problems are extreme examples of smog being impacted by the presence of an inversion layer. This is a problem all over the world though and cities like Los Angeles, California; Mumbai, India; Santiago, Chile; and Tehran, Iran, frequently experience intense smog when an inversion layer develops over them. Intense thunderstorms and tornados are also associated with inversions because of the intense energy that is released after an inversion blocks an area’s normal convection patterns.

Paper For Above Instructions

The debate regarding the primary causes of global warming remains a contentious topic across the globe. The pro-global warming lobby argues that rising man-made CO2 emissions are the main driver of recent climate change. However, evidence supporting this claim is limited and contested (Singer & Avery, 2007). Historical temperature records indicate that while CO2 emissions have increased significantly in the last century, temperatures fluctuated independently, suggesting other influential factors at play (Stott et al., 2016).

The argument against the view that CO2 is the sole or even primary cause of global warming is supported by the fact that historical temperature trends show a rise from 1900 to 1940, a period when CO2 levels were also increasing, followed by a decline until the late 1970s (Houghton, 2009). This indicates a complex interplay between various climatic factors beyond just CO2. Further, satellite data has demonstrated that after peak temperatures in 1998, significant warming has not occurred despite continued rises in CO2 levels, inadvertently challenging the narrative that CO2 concentrations directly dictate atmospheric temperatures (Christy et al., 2010).

Moreover, it is important to recognize that CO2 is just one component of the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Water vapor, for instance, makes up about 95% of greenhouse gas emissions (Soden & Fu, 2010). While an increase in CO2 does have a warming influence, it follows a logarithmic function whereby the initial increments have the most impact, with diminishing returns as concentrations increase (Myhre et al., 1998). At current levels of 393 parts per million, the warming effects of additional CO2 are marginal (Knorr, 2000).

Interestingly, in a historical context, CO2 levels have been significantly higher, demonstrating its role in plant growth and agricultural benefits (Guo & Sun, 2010). This leads to the argument that viewing CO2 strictly as a pollutant neglects its essential role as a building block for life. Indeed, agricultural practices illustrate how CO2 is utilized to boost crop yields in controlled environments, prompting a re-evaluation of the negative narrative surrounding this gas (Rogers, 2011).

The complexity of the earth's climate system cannot be overlooked. Various factors, including solar activity, ocean currents, and atmospheric dynamics, involve significant interactions with temperature changes (Gray et al., 2010). The correlation between solar activity and Earth's temperature can provide insights into variations that are often overshadowed by the focus on CO2 alone, indicating a need for a broader view of the climate change discussion (Shaviv, 2005).

Addressing global temperatures also means considering the potential for global cooling phases. Axel Michaelowa notes that reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could lead to atmospheric concentrations stabilizing and even declining, creating risks associated with a global cooling phase that could span centuries (Michaelowa, 2016). Current climate policies heavily emphasize reducing CO2 emissions while ignoring this longer-term perspective, potentially leading to unintended consequences.

Furthermore, urban areas significantly contribute to climate change discussions. Cities with significant pollution levels often experience atmospheric phenomena, like temperature inversions, which can exacerbate air quality issues. Inversions block atmospheric circulation, trapping pollutants and aggravating smog conditions, as evidenced by London’s Great Smog and similar events in cities worldwide (Briney, 2020). These phenomena raise critical questions about the impact of localized atmospheric disturbances versus broader trends attributed primarily to CO2.

To effectively address climate change and its myriad causes, it is crucial to expand the conversation to include other atmospheric processes that could affect climatic variations dramatically. Although CO2 is often deemed a significant contributor to global warming, the intricacies of weather patterns, atmospheric chemistry, and pollution must also be understood and incorporated into future climate strategies. By exploring alternative contributors, we can aim for a more balanced understanding of climate dynamics.

References

  • Briney, A. (2020). Temperature Inversion Layers. Geography About. Retrieved from http://geography.about.com/od/climate/a/inversionlayer.htm
  • Christy, J. R., Spencer, R. W., & Braswell, W. D. (2010). Misdiagnosis of Tropospheric Temperature Trends: A Comparison of Satellite, Radiosonde and Climate Models. Remote Sensing.
  • Gray, L. J., et al. (2010). Solar Influence on Climate. Reviews of Geophysics.
  • Guo, Z., & Sun, Y. (2010). Effects of CO2 on Plant Growth. Journal of Environmental Quality.
  • Houghton, J. (2009). Global Warming: The Complete Briefing. Cambridge University Press.
  • Knorr, W. (2000). Increased In-Stream CO2 and Atmospheric CO2: A Reassessment. Global Change Biology.
  • Michaelowa, A. (2016). Limiting Global Cooling after Global Warming is Over. Hamburg Institute of International Economics.
  • Myhre, G., et al. (1998). New Estimates of Radiative Forcing due to Well-Mixed Greenhouse Gases. Geophysical Research Letters.
  • Rogers, J. (2011). Enhanced CO2 in Greenhouses: Implications for Agriculture. International Journal of Agricultural Research.
  • Soden, B. J., & Fu, Q. (2010). The Effect of Water Vapor on Climate. Science.
  • Singer, S. F., & Avery, D. T. (2007). Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years. Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Shaviv, N. J. (2005). Cosmic Ray, Solar Activity and Climate. Journal of Cosmology.
  • Stott, P. A., et al. (2016). Attribution of Extreme Weather and Climate-Related Events. World Meteorological Organization.