more doubt of global warming

[Howler]

A co-worker found this artical. What I can't help to wonder is,.. whyare there so many questions/unknowns about what causes global cooling, but yet there seems to be nearly a concensus that "man"is to blame for all of global warming!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29469287/from/ET/#storyContinued

[Lemaitre]

For a given distance from the Sun the surface temperature of a planet will depend on the concentration of green house gasses in its atmosphere. If the Earth had no green houses gases in its atmosphere its surface temperature would be about 250K which is 23K lower than the freezing point of water so we know that there have been green house gasses, mainly CO2, in the atmosphere for the past 4 billion years or the Earth would have been frozen solid and life would probably not have evolved. We know that the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has gone from 280 ppm to 381 ppm, a 36% increase, over the past 150 years and the only reasonable explanation for this increase is the enormous increase in anthropogenic sources of atmospheric CO2 over this time period. We know that CO2 in the atmosphere warms the surface of a planet and the higher the concentration the greater the heating. Venus has a massive carbon dioxide atmosphere and a surface temperature of 750K, hot enough to melt lead. At what level of CO2 temperatures warm to the point that CO2 is no longer soluble in ocean water and we suffer a "runaway" greenhouse like Venus did is probably not known but we certainly do not want to find out by experiencing it. Global cooling is probably caused by the movement of tectonic plates. It is hypothesized that the creation of a land connection through Panama disrupted ocean currents and caused the periods of glaciation that the Earth has experienced over the past 2 million years.

[haystack]

Anybody know were I can find a accurate 2 week forecast ?

[hillbillyhunter1]

It was cold today so global warming is false

[bigbulls]

Venus has a massive carbon dioxide atmosphere and a surface temperature of 750K, hot enough to melt lead.

I am no scientist but wouldn't the fact that Venus is 20 million miles closer to the sun than the earth is account for its much higher surface temp?

Doesn't water vapor contribute the most greenhouse gases... aproximately 95%?
Isn't water vaporsomething like 99.999%pure and natural?

Isn't the"man made"contribution only about .25%?

[Fieldmouse]

we know that there have been green house gasses, mainly CO2,

That is false. CO2 make up very little of the green house gases.

Bigbulls, you are correct. 2% of our atmosphere is green house gases and overwhelmingly water vapor makes up 95% of it. CO2 only makes up 3.62% of the green house gasses. Humans only account for 3.4% of the CO2 that goes into the air every year. 96.6% of the CO2 that goes into the air each year are from nature. In fact we are down around number 7 on the list for CO2 sources. The oceans are number 1 on the list. Trees and even termites beat us on the list for contributers of CO2.

Here a good overview:

http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/GlobalWarmingPrimer.pdf

[Lemaitre]

ORIGINAL: bigbulls

I am no scientist but wouldn't the fact that Venus is 20 million miles closer to the sun than the earth is account for its much higher surface temp?

Being closer to the Sun accounts for some but not all of Venus's higher surface temperature. The Earth is 1.0 astronomical unit (AU) from the Sun and has a maximum surface temperature of 310K, Venus is 0.72 AU from the Sun with a maximum surface temperature of 750K but Mercury which is only 0.39 AU from the Sun has a maximum sub-solar temperature of 615K. The difference is Mercury has no CO2 in its extremely tenuous atmosphere. Venus has essentially no water vapor or methane in its atmosphere, all of its greenhouse heating is caused by CO2. Actually, because of its high albedo, if Venus had no CO2 in its atmosphere its theoretical surface temperature would only be 270K.

[Fieldmouse]

ORIGINAL: Lemaitre

Being closer to the Sun accounts for some but not all of Venus's higher surface temperature. The Earth is 1.0 astronomical unit (AU) from the Sun and has a maximum surface temperature of 310K, Venus is 0.72 AU from the Sun with a maximum surface temperature of 750K but Mercury which is only 0.39 AU from the Sun has a maximum sub-solar temperature of 615K. The difference is Mercury has no CO2 in its extremely tenuous atmosphere. Venus has essentially no water vapor or methane in its atmosphere, all of its greenhouse heating is caused by CO2. Actually, because of its high albedo, if Venus had no CO2 in its atmosphere its theoretical surface temperature would only be 270K.

That doesn't change the fact that CO2 plays very little role in our green house gases or the fact we contibute very little to the overall amount of CO2 in the air.

[Lanse couche couche]

Doesnt matter what we think, Obama is taking global warming seriously. I've got a friend that works at a large regional climate studies center. Hesaid that they have just been informed that the Obama administration is doubling their budget. This is coming at a time when the University is making significant budget cuts and many faculty jobs could be in danger.

[kevin1]

Just think Rocky, if they suddenly doubled the budget for your department to begin studying ethanol we wouldn't have to buy our own booze for the Swamp Romp.