My point is;
Our Earth's atmosphere is approximately 80% nitrogen, 20% oxygen. But just 0.4% is carbon dioxide, a "trace" amount. But from that tiny percentage is built all the plant life we have on Earth. Co2 is a natural molecule absolutely required for plant life to survive and therefore our own. In the process of growing, those plants give off oxygen. We and all animal life consume that oxygen and give off Co2. If that balance is sufficiently disturbed, species either adapt or perish. But no matter what happens our world just keeps on turning and spinning through the Cosmos........
Incidentally, we have a convenient phenomenon (greenhouse effect) that contributes to our survival. Doubling the amount of Co2 in our atmosphere will not double the temperature rise, that's been proved by the data leaked from the CRU.
The basic principle of what's known as the "greenhouse effect" is quite simple: in a glass-enclosed
environment, sunlight enters through the glass and strikes a surface, where it is transformed into longer infrared rays which do not easily reflect back through the glass; they're trapped. and raise the temperature. However, the greenhouse effect as applied to our planet is much more complicated. The infrared rays that are reflected back from the Earth are trapped by the greenhouse gases, water vapor and Co2 and some other trace gases such as methane- a process that warms those gases and heats the Earth. This effect in fact makes Earth habitable, preventing extremes of temperature, that no species plant or animal could survive. The limit of the influence of Co2 is dictated, not by the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but by the amount of solar radiation reflected back from the Earth. Once all the infrared rays have been "captured" by the greenhouse gases there is no additional increase in carbon dioxide. This is chemistry 101.
Yes, we produce Co2, by burning "fossil fuels" and by simply breathing. And every fossil fuel produces Co2.
Some products produce more than others, varying with their chemical composition. Methane gas produces less Co2, wood produces more. But almost paradoxically, when wood burns it produces Co2, but when we chop a tree down and let it die it rots and in fact produces yet more Co2 than we would ever create by burning it. Oceans are huge storage tanks for Co2, but as they warm up, they hold less of the dissolved gas, again this is chemistry 101. The oceans release it into the atmosphere, then more of it is absorbed back into the oceans. And as far as humans are concerned, ten times more people die each year from the effects of cold than die from the heat. My point in simple terms is that this a hugely complex set of variables we are trying to reduce to an equation...in "computer models" run by the IPCC that say anything they program them to do.
It's easy enough to believe that drought, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes are signs of a coming catastrophe from global warming, but these are normal variations of any climate that we - and other forms of life on this planet - have survived for millions if not billions of years. Earth has undergone many serious changes in climate, from the Ice Ages to periods of heavily increased plant growth from having high levels of Co2, yet the biosphere has survived, so have plants and animals and so have we!
We're adaptable, stubborn, persistent and tenacious - and we have what other life forms don't have: We have the ability to manipulate our environment. Show me an Inuit who can survive in his habitat without warm clothing... We humans will continue to infest every corner of this Earth because we're clever.
In my amateur opinion, more attention to disease control, better hygienic conditions for food production and clean water supplies, as well as controlling the filth that we breathe, and the toxic waste that we produce are far larger more acute problems that we need to address rather than the current distraction that we frett about baking in Global Warming.
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