>>It isn't that rising rising temperatures don't cause carbon levels to rise in the atmosphere. It does.
And the theme of the AGW theory is that rising CO2 levels will increase temperature. So we should have had runaway global warming, where rising temperatures raised CO2
levels, which raised temperature more, which raised CO2 more etc etc ....
Since that didn't happen, there must be something wrong with the AGW theory.
I see your problem. You take a simplistic straw man, knock it down as simplistic, and then say that something is wrong with climate change. I think you're probably better than that, but have decided to not bother looking at what scientists are actually saying. I've given you links already. You're smart enough to use them, if you want to.
>> Runaway greenhouse effects are possible.
In theory. We haven't seen it happen in earths history.
>>The fact that it "hasn't happened" doesn't mean it can't happen.
I'd settle for the fact that it hasn't happened means its unlikely to happen. We've seen CO2 rise in the past w/o triggering runaway greenhouse effect. Why should it happen this time?
No one is saying that runaway climate change will happen now, although some people are saying that it is possible. Of course it's possible--what do you think has happened on Venus? there are other factors besides CO2 that affect climate. Saying that doesn't mean that CO2 has negligible effects or is a "minor" GHG. The reason to focus on CO2 now is that CO2 is the factor that is being added to the mix. The only real question is one about climate sensitivity to CO2--what will the added CO2 do to climate? You claim that it won't do anything, and say that CO2 has been much higher in the past. And proponents agree with that, but add--yes, but the temperature was much higher when it was. Like duh. You say that higher temperatures lead to higher CO2; proponents say that that is simplistic, that there are feedbacks that cause CO2 to lead to higher temps that lead to higher CO2 and so on, but that there are also other factors (like CO2 being washed out of the atmosphere by rain, or plants and the oceans acting as CO2 sinks) that manage keep that cycle from becoming a runaway cycle.
This discussion doesn't seem to be going anywhere other than a repetition of previous arguments. I refer you to the article from realclimate.org that is my previous post. |
