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Okay, the easiest way to explain it is if you can imagine the world sitting in a sealed container. Nothing gets in and nothing gets out. In this sealed container, the TOTAL amount of carbon on the planet cannot change. What can change is where the carbon is located. Some of the carbon is sitting under the ground, in the form of coal, oil and natural gas. Some of it is in trees and other vegetation, some is in animals and in people, some is in the oceans and the rest is in the atmosphere as Carbon Dioxide.

We take the coal, oil and gas out of the ground and burn it. The waste, Carbon Dioxide, is pumped into the atmosphere. There is less carbon in the ground now and more in the atmosphere, but the total amount of carbon remains the same.

We had high levels of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere in the past because for whatever reason, there was less in the ground and more at the surface of the planet.

Sure, trees do absorb CO2, but so does all vegetation AND, more importantly, so do the oceans. Think about the amount of trees that have been cut down and we still haven't run out of Oxygen. The reason that we aren't choking to death today is because the oceans absorb huge amounts of Carbon Dioxide and release the Oxygen. They are the world's great carbon sink. Plankton and algae consume immense quantities of CO2.

I don't know if you have the same in New Zealand... but in Australia the new catch phrase is "Carbon Sequestration", where they want to clean up coal fired power stations by capturing the carbon emissions and pumping them underground where they will be contained and stored.

Carbon sequestration is also a naturally occuring process, albeit a very slow one, in which all the coal, oil and natural gas reserves were created. It was this process, and not the world's natural resources to human population ratio, that ultimately brought down the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. Remember that the amount of Carbon on Earth does not change, only where it is located changes.

Carbon Dioxide is vital in the growth cycle of all vegetation. If anything, having a slighly higher level of CO2 in the atmosphere can only benefit plant life.

The current level of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is about 383 parts per million. Apparently the level in 1800 was about 280 parts per million. So as you can see, with all the carbon we have been burning over the last 200 years, we haven't even managed to double the tiny amount that was there without us burning anything. And personally, I fail to see how a roughly 35% increase in such a small component of our atmosphere would have such a dramatic impact on global temperatures. I am far more inclined to believe that the warming is just a natural Earth cycle.



This idea of planting new trees to replace the ones you cut down looks great on paper, but it isn't going to address the real problem caused by deforestation, that of habitat loss. Putting some new trees in the middle of a barren paddock isn't going to replace the eco-system that has been destroyed by cutting down the forest.

A far better policy would be that if you want to cut down a tree, you have to grow it first!

It's a complex world we live in... and sometimes political decisions are made for political reasons, not sensible reasons!

Hey Bourbs,,,,How do you know all this shit!!!
Do I have to call you Proffessor Bourban now ?

Ive got my old school Uniform somewhere.....

Kizzy

That does it, I'm putting you on detention miss kizzy.

You are a smart lil cookie aren't ya bourbs..

Yahoo !!!

Do I get the cane too????:yay:

As the Ladies say in their own way.

Its nice to learn something new.

I will happily go along with what you say. It makes logical sense.

Its amazing how much more you can learn if your willing to learn and look from a slightly different angle.

lol luv to see u in school uniform angel

Mmmmm Bargo Bill you know me toooo well lol xx

I dont think global warming can be put down to any one cause though I do believe that we as a human race do contribute to the earths natural process of ageing.If oil acts as a natural barrier between the earths core and it's surface and helps maintain the earths natural surface temperature then I believe that the mining of oil is the main contributing factor to the so called global warming. Without this insulation the ocean temperatures are already rising and it is that rise in ocean temperature that also contributes to the so called global warming ..

That is a complex subject, most of the figures come from fluid dynamic computer models that are far from accurate as they deal with a very simplified version of our planet.

Having said that the drive to use less energy is inherently a good one. Oil is becoming a substance that has too much blood on it now. A dirty product with dirty politics. Also Oil is a finite resource although there are more and more substitutes for it coming to us now.

We will continue to consume energy at an ever increasing rate and the only path seems to be that of Nuclear Power. With 4th and 5th generation Power plants now being so much safer than the likes of Chernobyl.

I know a lot of people are still very anti-nuclear but we do and will continue to consume vast ammounts of energy, It has to come from somewhere. I think for many countries in the world this will be the choice for the next century and who knows, there is always the possibility of new breakthroughs in energy technology.

We are a highly inventive breed.

We have global warming because our planet has always been through cycles. Even if humans are causing it, that is part of nature because we have evolved to do the things that warm the globe. If this were not true, we would still have dinasaurs and other extinct species roaming the earth. Yes we will become extinct, but hell I won't be here and neither will my great grandkids. It is nature

You guys are rather confused it seems sheep, methane, co2, acid rain and "ozone"... it seems that you may be the product of ill informed journalism.

Btw... there has been no warming since 1998! In fact the earth has cooled since then and both arctic and antarctic ice is at record levels and some 20% higher than in 1980! according to current NASA satellite data...

Where did all the warming go???