Quote:
Originally Posted by retsuki03
Clutch?
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Yes, clutch... You're obviously missing the idea on this one. Yes, a similar increase in CO2 levels have increased temperatures much more in the past, however in the past there was significatly less particulate in the air.
Okay, so the story goes a little like this... Back in the industrial revolution, humans started pumping out greehouse gases into the atmosphere, which according to modern scientists should have increased global temperatures, however it didn't because there were significant particulate releases along with it, which decreased the amount of energy the Earth recieved from the Sun by reflecting photons back out of the atmosphere before they hit the Earth, and thus counterbalancing the greenhouse effect with an almost equal amount of cooling.
More recently, humanity's rate of CO2 production is still accelerating, while the amount of particulate we are producing is slowing, mostly due to environmental regulations which are harder on particulate than CO2. As there becomes less and less particulate comparative to CO2, the greenhouse effect will overwhelm the cooling effect of the particulate, and the average temperature of the Earth will rise at an incredible rate.
For those of you who think it would be nice if it was a little warmer, just don't forget that any significant increase in temperature would have major effects on climate (and thus agriculture), could cause mass extinctions of plant and animal species, and I'm sure do a few other nasty things that I'm not thinking of at the present time. Also, if the earth warms up 5*C, then what? Let it warm another 5*C? We're going to have to put a stop to it eventually, or eventually it's going to become to hot for humanity. If it's going to be necessary anyway, then we might as well get to work on it now.