Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard
The Arctic ice cap doesn't lie -- water melting an freezing points are absolute. The volume of ice is a small fraction of what it was just a few years ago. If it is getting cooler, then why is the Arctic ice melting to lower and lower minimums?
|
Link? Number? Citation? No?
Didn't think so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard
And before you ask, the reason the Antarctic is gaining a *little* ice is because of the increased amount of moisture in the atmosphere, which falls as snow when it is below freezing. After we gain a little more heat, the Antarctic will then start losing ice volume.
|
This statement exhibits a surprisingly large amount of ignorance about the water cycle. How would you explain how a "little more heat" somehow would not lead to even more water vapor from sea evaporation going to the polar caps and falling as snow? For that matter, can you explain what happens with heat transfer with regard to rain, storms, cyclones, tornadoes, and the like?
Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard
We have great data on what the carbon dioxide levels were when the polar ice caps froze.
Sure in the past, carbon dioxide was as high as 1,000 PPM, and there was no ice at all anywhere, and sea level was a LOT higher.
|
Um... How can we know that carbon dioxide levels were 1000 PPM as measured in ice core samples, when there, um, "was no ice at all anywhere?"
Besides that, how is it that 2008 polar ice levels
grew 10 percent from 2007? Doesn't sound very much like 110% is a small fraction of 100%. That is, unless you do math differently from me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard
Volcanoes can change the carbon dixoide by ~100 PPM / Million Years -- which is about 1/10,000th PPM / Year. Humans are changing it by ~2 PPM / Year.
|
The atmospheric carbon dioxide inventory is something on the order of 750 gigatons, or 750,000,000,000 tons. Manmade contributions are about 6 gigatons, or 0.8 percent of that above number with the 10 zeros in it.
So, take this magical 383 ppm that AGW supporters love to whine about, which represents the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today, by concentration. Then, let's take 280 ppm, which is the "pre-industrial" level of carbon dioxide. Finally, let's take that 0.8 percent I mentioned.
0.8 percent of 383 ppm is... 3.064 ppm. Take 3.064 ppm from 383 ppm, and you have... 380.36 ppm. Hm... That's still higher than 280 ppm, which is supposed to be the magical pristine concentration of carbon dioxide.
So, in other words, even if Mankind were to stop emitting carbon dioxide altogether, the reduced amount of carbon dioxide would still be ABOVE the "pre-industrial" level.