Cause of Global Warming

[dragonfly]

For those of you who believe that human's are not significantly influencing the current GW trend, can you please enlighten us as to the natural factors that are in play, that are causing it? This would make a kick a** paper for Scientific American, so I'd love to get your data. I'll even make you a co-author.

[SSimon]

The earth is not round as we had thought. It is really convex in shape and the furthest points from the center are actually growing! They are getting closer and closer to the sun. How's that?

[dragonfly]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Aug 11 2006, 03:16 PM) [snapback]301682[/snapback]</div>

The earth is not round as we had thought. It is really convex in shape and the furthest points from the center are actually growing! They are getting closer and closer to the sun. How's that?
[/b]

That's brilliant! But.... what about the points closer to the center, thus farther from the sun? Remember, we're talking about a global average here. D'oh!

[Alric]

This is really hard because there it would be very difficult to find a peer-reviewed paper that does not argue for at least a contribution by humans.

The non-human factors would actually tend to result in another ice age!

Cheers!

[dragonfly]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alric @ Aug 11 2006, 03:22 PM) [snapback]301687[/snapback]</div>

This is really hard because there it would be very difficult to find a peer-reviewed paper that does not argue for at least a contribution by humans.

The non-human factors would actually tend to result in another ice age!

Cheers!
[/b]

Now that's no way to get on the author list Alric! :P

[john1701a]

> It's only natural

I love that line... since extinction is too.

And even if the planet itself can survive a cycle of extreme storms & temperatures doesn't mean we can.

[DaveinOlyWA]

well lets pretend that us spewing CO2 into the air at a rate of over 100 million tons a day from coal fired power plants and gas guzzling cars isnt causing global warming although its been proved that CO2 is a greenhouse gas.

then lets look at the reduction of millions of acres of grasslands that have been plowed under to create industrial farms to grow things like corn.

grass is vital to the balance of nature simply because it is the best method we have for the sequestration of carbon. the most effective way of removing carbon from the air is to create grasslands and have ruminants (animals that eat grass) maintain it. a well maintained pasture (in certain parts of the country) will sequester more carbon than a forest will.

the reason is that grass tends to balance itself from roots to shoots. that means that grass if 12 inches below ground, will also be about the same above ground. if a cow should take 8 inches off the top, the first thing the grass will do is kill off a corresponding amount of root system turning the roots into humus which enriches the soil and returns carbon to the ground. as the grass recovers from the cows attack, it removes more carbon from the air as CO2 and then the root system grows to match the shoots.

a grasses growing cycle can run as short as 14 days from cow attack to is maximum growth period after which, the cows can be returned to the pasture and the same process started over again.

seeing as when one animal consumes another, the energy loss or calories needed to create the calories eaten is a approximately a 9 to 1 ratio, this grass process is advantageous since the only inputed energy comes not from man made fertilizers and chemicals but from the sun.

scientists estimate that a full third of greenhouse gases are being caused by industrialized farming.

[dragonfly]

All I seem to be getting from you guys is evidence that humans ARE contributing to global warming. Nobody seems to be able to offer up anything of substance to the contrary.
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Thought so!

[Godiva]

Wow, I didn't know that about grass. I just consider it an annoyance. I got rid of my lawn because of watering and mowing and stuff.

Does this mean all grasses or only wild ones or long ones or ones that turn in to hay or something?

So if I can't plant a lot of trees, I should at least plant grass? What about regular bushes? It seems the very plants that are good for the environment are also the ones that burden my water bill.

[jimmyrose]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dragonfly @ Aug 12 2006, 03:18 PM) [snapback]302202[/snapback]</div>

All I seem to be getting from you guys is evidence that humans ARE contributing to global warming. Nobody seems to be able to offer up anything of substance to the contrary.
[/b]

That's probably because then you'll want those things that corroborate such statements... you know, what are they called again?
Oh yeah, now I remember - facts.
Truly, I think the "Save the Planet" bumper stickers are a really bad idea. We can't save the planet. As a matter of fact, apart from nuclear annihilation the planet is not in danger from us. Earth will be fine; homo sapiens will be gone. The planet will repair itself, and we'll be nothing more than the (as an analogy) memory of an annoying bee sting to Earth.
We should instead be printing out "Save the Humans" stickers. We sure as hell have our own self-interests at heart, maybe that might make people think....