Anybody who believed global warming was man made are having questions now?

[elprincipe]

pastro243 said:
Well, I wont say anything about climate change since I admit I dont know much, but I think some people just want free cards to pollute, I feel some people just want to discredit climate change to be able to do more things that will help their pocket, when these things may not be associated with CC but in the end cause damage anyway.

Though the worlds temperature may not be a cause to stop polluting, there are many, like soil and water contamination, and the things pollution may cause to our health, extinction of some species induced by our actions and such. Besides, polluting less brings technology and a more healthy envoirment, whnch in the long run can favor economy in a great way.

Im just saying just because the effect we cause on the planets temperature may not be as big or present as some people want us to think it doesnt mean we dont cause any effect, good or bad, in a large scale to the planet or ecosystems. Im begining to think the people that warn us so much about climate change and are not scientists just use the term for people to stop pulluting, which may work, but if its not prooved people will think polluting is ok and that is the risk politicians run when they dont speak clearly.

This is a typical viewpoint.  Allow me to point out the biggest problem with it: CO2 is not pollution.  Carbon dioxide is what plants use for food and what animals exhale (including humans).  CO2 is no more pollution than water vapor (which, incidentally, is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 by many times by all accounts).  So when speaking of "carbon pollution," realize that using such a term to refer to CO2 is an oxymoron.

Secondly, CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are historically at a very low level.  They are rising now, but before recorded history they were many times today's levels.  The Earth did not have a runaway greenhouse effect then.  One more reason to be skeptical of one being triggered now, with much lower concentrations.

Finally, since CO2 is plant food (it's what you pipe into greenhouses to help plants grow), plant productivity has increased worldwide as a result of increasing concentrations.  In fact, studies have estimated that a doubling of CO2 would significantly increase food production due to more productive crops.  Of course, you don't read about something like this in the newspapers.  Nor do you read that if the theory of global warming is proved true that less people will be under water stress than they are today because of increased evaporation (thus, increased clouds and rain).

There are many pollution problems in the world.  Until more proof is offered as to how CO2 emissions are dangerous, it's foolish to concentrate on them instead of the air, water and soil pollution right in front of us.