Global Warming

[jcm]

Does anyone have a good site that breaks it all down?

There is soooo much conflicting information out there. The main issue I am confused about is the relationship between CO2 and temperature. Does CO2 increase because of the temperature or does temperature increase because of CO2?

I’ve heard arguments either way.

[Will]

CO2 increases temperature. For more information on why, you may want to read up on radiative forcing. I'm not a climatologist, so I don't really speak with any authority on this issue. I'm not sure if there is one authority on the issue.

[jcm]

CO2 increases temperature. For more information on why, you may want to read up on radiative forcing. I'm not a climatologist, so I don't really speak with any authority on this issue. I'm not sure if there is one authority on the issue.

In one graph I saw, it shows that co2 rises after the temperture rises. who is right?

[Will]

Theoretically, it would be CO2 rising and then temperature rising. That's what the basic chemistry and thermodynamics tell me at least.

[pedricero matao]

ok i'll try to explain myself correctly.

First of all I don't know almost anything about climatology or whatever. I'm not getting into that.

Carbon dioxide has two peaks of absorption in the IR region, one at 15.00 micrometers and another at 4.26 micrometers. Light coming from the sun that enters the atmosphere suffers various procceses (for example UVC is absorbed by oxygen and ozone and UVB by ozone). others, such as VIS or part of the UVA radiation is absorbed by the earth and re-emitted as IR radiation (less energetic). IR radiation is responsible for things like molecular vibrations, and -if you let me put it this way- can be a means for carrying heat.
The thing is, that IR radiation coming from the earth's surface can be absorbed by CO2 (and other gases too) and reemitted back to the earth, instead of letting it "escape" the atmosphere.

That's fine if this proccess is not altered by anthropogenic activities and the equilibrium is pushed too far away (like most of things in nature).

That's the chemistry of it. Sorry if it's too basic or something, but one does not really know to whom is talking here.

The problem with such issues (global warming, oil & fossil fuels, etc) is that there is a lot of money involved and everybody knows everything.

If anyone doesn't understand something cos of my English or something i'll be glad to try to help.

[Whitney]

From my understanding, increased temperatures allows for more areas of the planet to support plant life, thus causing an increase in CO2.  However, since CO2 is also a greenhouse gas, an increase in it will also cause an increase in temperature.  So, both could be correct.  I guess the temperature would eventually hit a point where it fries the plant life and/or throws the ocean currents way out of wack thus affecting the climate in other ways...leading to less plant life and eventual cooling if other CO2 producers do not maintain the high levels (such as in natural global warming/cooling trends).  But, I'm no expert.

[BadPoison]

From my understanding, increased temperatures allows for more areas of the planet to support plant life, [strike:65ri3zeb]thus causing an increase in CO2.[/strike:65ri3zeb] However, since CO2 is also a greenhouse gas, an increase in it will also cause an increase in temperature.  So, both could be correct.  I guess the temperature would eventually hit a point where it fries the plant life and/or throws the ocean currents way out of wack thus affecting the climate in other ways...leading to less plant life and eventual cooling if other CO2 producers do not maintain the high levels (such as in natural global warming/cooling trends).  But, I'm no expert.

I may have missed something, but photosynthesis is:

 6CO2 + 6H2O ------> C6H12O6 + 6O2

So more plants/other photoautotrophs should mean a higher amount of CO2 converted to O2.

[pedricero matao]

From my understanding, increased temperatures allows for more areas of the planet to support plant life, [strike:1cwc8953]thus causing an increase in CO2.[/strike:1cwc8953] However, since CO2 is also a greenhouse gas, an increase in it will also cause an increase in temperature.  So, both could be correct.  I guess the temperature would eventually hit a point where it fries the plant life and/or throws the ocean currents way out of wack thus affecting the climate in other ways...leading to less plant life and eventual cooling if other CO2 producers do not maintain the high levels (such as in natural global warming/cooling trends).  But, I'm no expert.

I may have missed something, but photosynthesis is:

 6CO2 + 6H2O ------> C6H12O6 + 6O2

So more plants/other photoautotrophs should mean a higher amount of CO2 converted to O2.

Right

[Whitney]

From my understanding, increased temperatures allows for more areas of the planet to support plant life, [strike:3bermsm8]thus causing an increase in CO2.[/strike:3bermsm8] However, since CO2 is also a greenhouse gas, an increase in it will also cause an increase in temperature.  So, both could be correct.  I guess the temperature would eventually hit a point where it fries the plant life and/or throws the ocean currents way out of wack thus affecting the climate in other ways...leading to less plant life and eventual cooling if other CO2 producers do not maintain the high levels (such as in natural global warming/cooling trends).  But, I'm no expert.

I may have missed something, but photosynthesis is:

 6CO2 + 6H2O ------> C6H12O6 + 6O2

So more plants/other photoautotrophs should mean a higher amount of CO2 converted to O2.

Right

Ya...nevermind what I say...I only confused the fact that plants use CO2, not make it.  

[BadPoison]

It's all gravy baby  

[thiolsulfate]

I may have missed something, but photosynthesis is:

 6CO2 + 6H2O ------> C6H12O6 + 6O2

So more plants/other photoautotrophs should mean a higher amount of CO2 converted to O2.

That is true but it still requires a sufficient amount of photosynthetic life to convert that CO2 into glucose. The problem is that the rate at which we are putting CO2 into the atmosphere is much higher than the rate at which plants can consume it.

*edit

Should have made this more clear. The O2 that plants release is not from CO2, it is from water.

There is no real equilibrium that factors in to balance available CO2 with photosynthetic life. There are no massive algae blooms or forest explosions occurring. There is another limiting factor that is inhibiting the ability for plants to mass and grow fast enough to consume CO2 -- and I suspect that factor is us and our inability or unwillingness to sufficiently reforest. Scientists have successfully done artificial photosynthesis but it's not yet on the scale that it would be practical.

On the "what came first" question: there is a hypothesis that there is a feedback loop between warming and CO2 release. There is CO2 trapped in some of the glaciers that are now melting. These glaciers melt releasing more CO2, causing more glaciers to melt etc. Not only that, melting ice means that there is less reflection of sunlight back into space and more absorption of sunlight by our oceans (the ocean absorbs almost all of the light that hits it while ice reflects almost all) causing further positive feedback.

Regardless of whether or not global warming is man made (I'm of the camp that it is at least severely aggravated by man) we need to keep the planet in such a state that it can support our lives. Finding a way to reverse this warming should be the utmost concern to every living thing on this planet.

If you want a little more insight there's a BBC documentary called "Catastrophe" that will inspire you to the nature of our planet -- though not so much on Global Warming specifically.

[sunshineacre]

For me the best movie or documentary to learn about global warming is the An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. It will totally make us realize how important it is to pull our act together and help save the world.

[Tom62]

For me the best movie or documentary to learn about global warming is the An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. It will totally make us realize how important it is to pull our act together and help save the world.

Al Gore? Wasn't that the guy who invented the Internet   ?

[BadPoison]

Al Gore? Wasn't that the guy who invented the Internet   ?

Lock box.