| HappySqurriel said: 0.03% of the earth's atmosphere is Carbon Dioxide, of that 14% of it is man made in the form of the burning of fossil fuels (for a grand total of 0.00042% of the earth's atmospher is made up of fossil fuel related carbon dioxide). If you assume that the earth is a system which preserves homeostasis (a fair assumption) in order to increase the temperature on the earth 1 degree celcius you have to double the quantity of CO2 in the atmosphere, which would work out to us producing 6 times as much CO2 as we currently are to double natural levels of CO2.
|
I don't think homeostasis in the Earth's climate is a fair assumption at all. There are all kinds of feedback loops, both positive and negative, which come into effect when the temperature shifts. Which is why climatologists refer to CO2 levels as a 'forcing' agent which can trigger those feedback loops and have a disproportionate effect on the planet's climate.
Possible feedback mechanisms include water vapour in the atmosphere, changing albedo of the planet's surface, growth and decay of vegetable matter, release of methane trapped in permafrost, acidification of oceans, and probably a lot more I'm not aware of. Of course, the interaction of all these systems is incredibly complex and poorly understood, but I don't think we can just shrug our shoulders and assume it will all balance out.
"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event." — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.
