The Last Frost

So Called "Myth" #4: CO2 is the most common greenhouse gas.

Their Argument In A Nutshell: There are more greenhouse gases in our atmosphere than CO2. There's water vapor and clouds (Clouds a greenhouse gas? WTF?), methane, ozone and many others. CO2 constitutes just .037% of our atmosphere and water vapor and clouds alone are responsible for an estimated 60% of the greenhouse effect thus overpowering the effect of the other gases. I quote right off their site, "Those attributing climate change to CO2 rarely mention this important fact".[Read their original argument here - Myth #4]

The Truth: No shit Watson! Climate scientists don't mention it when discussing anthropogenic climate change because it's irrelevant. The burning of fossil fuels isn't pumping vast quantities of methane, ozone and water vapor into our atmosphere, it's pumping in CO2. No one is arguing whether CO2 is the most common or not. If you want to talk about atmospheric composition, save it for a high school level Earth Studies course, that's where it's relevant. 

The main point that climate change experts are trying to make is that humans as a species are outputting vast amounts of CO2 into our atmosphere which is disrupting the balance of naturally occurring greenhouse gases in our environment. We are overwhelming our planets carbon cycle, producing more CO2 than our planet's currently known systems can cope with. This CO2 is output in vast quantities, which warms the Earth, acidifies the oceans which is killing ocean life and makes some plants grow better which is actually good. But in general the gas has an impact on most every living thing across the globe and for us, the impacts have a huge potential for harm.

This so called "myth" was invented to cloud the real issue and was never a part of the debate on climate change. Speaking of clouds, they actually list clouds as a greenhouse gas. Clouds reflect sunlight away from the Earth and actually have a cooling effect, water vapor is a greenhouse gas and there's a big difference. This is a glaring example of how these "Friends of Science" really don't pay attention to the whole science thing.

Lastly their whole thing about the other gases overpowering the impact of CO2 misses the point entirely. All these gases contribute to the greenhouse effect which they confuse with global warming. The greenhouse effect is a wonderful thing that keeps our Earth's climate very comfortable, without it, our globe would be colder than a Minnesota winter. It doesn't mean that increasing the quantity of one gas, whether it's in the minority or not, won't have a significant effect. If you want to hear more about this check out, "Why Do Human Made Greenhouse Gases Matter When Water Vapor Is The Most Potent Greenhouse Gas?"

Onto the next myth!

Common misconceptions about global warming - [Friends of Science]

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 1:45 am and is filed under Bullshit, Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Rants, Science, Weather. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.