sandorski
No Lifer
- Oct 10, 1999
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Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
Originally posted by: shoegazer
Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
A lot of these studies that I look at can't seem to get past the whole "correlation doesn't equal causation" test. That is where science starts. You observe a possible correlation and then you start to establish if the two are related. Example: science has noted that in the last 100 or so years atmospheric CO2 concentrations have risen. Coincidently in the last 100 or so years temperatures have risen. Therefore A causes B.
But that is not good science. Especially when we know that in the past higher concentrations of CO2 have been present during ice ages. We also know that tempertures have fluctuated wildly in the recent geological past with no influence from man. We also know that CO2 concentrations have risen and fallen with out the influence of man. This is not to say that CO2 is not the cause of rising temps, nor is it to say that man is not influencing CO2 concentrations... but it's not evidence that it is either.
the thing is, we can keep track of the co2 we release. the increase in co2 in the oceans and atmosphere matches up with the co2 we are releasing.
higher concentrations of co2 cause higher temperatures. of course, there are countless other feedback factors influencing the worlds climate that could nullify the effect of co2.
but, humans are definitely perturbing the worlds natural co2 concentrations, and we know that co2 has played a major role in climate over the earth's history.
To an extent I agree. It's fairly easy to track how much CO2 we are releasing and how that affects the overall CO2 atmospheric content.
But to say that CO2 causes high temperatures is patently unprovable as we know that elevated CO2 conditions have occured during ice ages as well as periods of elevated temperature.
To say that CO2 causes warming is the same as saying that where we see "A" we also tend to see "B". Therefore A causes B. That is a fallacy without proof of causation, which we clearly don't have. Additionally we have correlation between high CO2 concentrations and cooler temperatures. Nobody is saying that A causes B in those known situations.
The one thing that is not arguable is that we live in a dynamic climate. The hows and whys of the dynamic nature of teh climate have many theories and observations as to how it all works. Hard science and evidence seem to be hard to come by though.
No, we do know CO2 increases temperature. Other factors can have the opposite affect though, such as high altitude particles such as Volcanic Dust which reflects sunlight. In fact a recent study shows that Manmade particles are decreasing and the fear now is that that decrease will accelerate the Global Climate change effect as more sunlight reaches the Earth.