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Current Events » in reply to The Impact Of CO2 Is Measurable In The Lab

CO2 and global warming
Gary — (archived)

Mark,

I'm actually agnostic concerning the global warming debate. I don't believe current global average temperatures are higher than they were during the Roman Empire when grapes were cultivated in Britain. Also evidence based upon CFD and computer derived climate models make me smile with skepticism (I got my Ph.D. doing CFD). Current temperature rise may well be due to human activity. However temperature rise due to human activity might also be in the noise compared to stronger natural phenomena, e.g. solar effects, precession of the equinoxes, etc. We humans tend to overrate ourselves but we're utterly insignificant compared to the power of nature. The steady rise of carbon dioxide over the last century is an indisputable fact and I would be mildly surprised if this was not due to human activity. However the Earth's main temperature feedback mechanism is based upon water vapor. A slight increase in carbon dioxide might simply mean more cloudy days in the tropics with no net effect.

Despite being agnostic about global warming, I am concerned about over fishing in the oceans. Supposably whole ecosystems in the ocean have collapsed due to over fishing. Contrary to environmentalist myth, the real "lungs of the Earth" are not the rain forests but rather the ocean's phytoplankton. If the "top of the food chain" fish are being wipe out through over fishing then the population of lower level predators could greatly increase. These lower level predators could gobble up the phytoplankton. Significant reduction in phytoplankton would have implications concerning the Earth's carbon dioxide levels.

Gary

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