reply to post by Jimjolnir
Thanks there Jimjolnir!
Being new to ATS, I was at first hesitant to post in a thread like this. People get extremely heated (uuuhhhh....not sure if I intended that as a pun
or not!) over this issue. Having read through many more pages since my post, I had to re-think my opinion that Facebook is a horrible place where
people scream and yell at each other over politics.
Indeed. Apparently "Global Warming" or "Climate Change" made my list of the top 3 things that people will cheerfully strangle each other over!
Whew!
My observation about where I live (and I've lived many other places in the world, both tropical and way up north where snow is measured in feet) and
the seasons, was not to prove anything of course. One spot on the Earth does not dictate what is going on with the rest of the globe. But it does
crack me up when the younger generation (under 25) in this area started yelling about how our mild winter in our area was "absolute proof" about
climate change.
I just looked at the cross eyed. I mean, good lord, even the Farmer's Almanac predicted a very mild winter for the SE part of the USA when they put
their latest issue out last year with their winter forecast in it. Seems they were on the money.
I saw someone post on here that they were worried about volcanos, and another person state that yes, volcanoes do put CO2 into the air (along with a
multitude of other gases), but that after they errupt they stop.
What an absurd statement.
First, volcanoes can erupt for just a few days, or can last up to years and years and years. Some times for thousands of years. Take a look at
Stromboli in Italy. It's been erupting for over a thousand years.
Just because one volcano stops, doesn't mean the others all do too. At any given time, there are many active volcanoes out there around the world,
all dumping large amounts of green house gasses into our atmosphere.
www.volcano.si.edu...
So how much CO2 does a volcano emit? Well it varies, just as how much a car emits varies too, depending on the make, model, year, and of course upkeep
on it. But we can look at that (not that it will answer anything right away):
volcanoes.usgs.gov...
So we're talking about millions of metric tons....from a single volcano, but also is depends on the type of eruption, type of lava coming from it,
and of course how long it erupts for and stays active.
Your average car puts out about 6 tons per year of CO2 according to these guys (not sure about the accuracy, but 20 pounds of CO2 from 1 gallon of gas
sounds about right, but finding hard numbers is hard).
Does this mean we are not affecting things like people say?
I'm not sure. I believe we do have an affect, yes. The question is how much of an effect.
Don't get me wrong. The people in this thread that have stated that "us puny humans can not possibly hurt the Earth!" are dolts in my opinion.
Apparently they've never heard of the term "Global Thermal Nuclear War", "CFC's" and the like.
Seriously folks. We humans, can make a BIG impact on our planet. I'm just not sure if we are making as big of an impact as many would like to think
right now.
Consider this: have the climate experts (and I'm talking about the people who get paid for this, not you arm chair experts) taken into account
volcanoes? If so.....how? Volcanic eruptions is not a constant. It fluctuates. This means that the amount of CO2 that is dumped in the air by them, is
by no means a constant thing.
A human being puts out around 2.3 pounds of CO2 per day (depending upon their activity, obviously breathing harder you put more out). But according to
our government, this is not counted as added to our air because, it get's absorbed again....
How much carbon dioxide do humans contribute through breathing? The average person, through the natural process of breathing, produces approximately
2.3 pounds (1 kg) of carbon dioxide per day. The actual amount depends strongly on the person’s activity level. However, this carbon dioxide is part
of a natural closed-loop cycle and does not contribute to the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. Natural processes of photosynthesis (in
plants) and respiration (in plants and animals) maintain a balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Thus, the carbon dioxide from
natural process is not included in greenhouse gas inventories.
www.epa.gov...
Excuise me? Wait. Just wait. We humans are dumping more CO2 into the air than nature can absorb due to our activities with fossil fuels. Okay, I can
buy that....but our numbers have been increasing too. A LOT. How much CO2 in one day do all the humans on Earth put out?
Heh. I still think we have a lot to learn. I sure wish people here would be less emotional, but then again, I'm new to ATS, hehehehe