Dear Patrick, I suggest you start by watching "An Inconvenient Truth". It doesn't address all your questions, but it does address many of them.
Regarding your questions: Don't you think the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has spent quite a bit of brain energy thinking about this issue? Don't you think that a panel of hundreds of respected scientists would be able to put together all plausible potential causes of the observed temperature increases? (referring to geothermal/ hotter sun ideas you mentioned.) Also, I imagine that you don't question that humans are burning an immense amount of fossil fuels. I presume that you don't question that before 150 years ago, we were hardly burning any fossil fuels. And I presume you realize that fossil fuels are made largely of carbon and when you burn carbon you get CO2 (mostly). So, then, if we are burning a lot of carbon, where does that CO2 go if it is not in the atmosphere? Also, consider what the earth was like millions of years ago when all that CO2 that until recently was buried as fossil fuels was in the air. Remember those stories of dinosaurs living in subtropical environments over much of the earth and that much of the present dry land was covered with shallow seas? Does that suggest nothing to you about the connection between the amount of CO2 in the air, the temperature of the earth, and the potential for rising sea levels? Respectfully, Tim Nuttle patrick wrote: > Why is the media reporting that the UN determined that the cause of global > warming human activity, when in fact this is not what the most recent UN > report stated? Instead, what was stated was that humans are very likely a > cause (e.g. one of the causes) of global warming. > > Has anyone studied whether a large proportion of global warming is being > caused by an increase in geothermal heating of the oceans? I recently read > an article stating that the deep oceans are heating. I think that > geothermal heating of oceans could increase if a hot spot in the earth's > core moved from below a continent to below an ocean. Would not an increase > in ocean temperatures cause lower carbon dioxide solubility and thus > release a significant amount into the atmosphere? > > Correct me if I'm wrong, but air is a poor conductor of heat, especially > in comparison to water. Therefore, do not the oceans heat the atmosphere > more than the atmosphere heats the oceans? I thought that heating of the > oceans is generally due to solar radiation and geothermal heating. > Considering that greenhouse gases don't increase the intensity of solar > radiation reaching earth, and also that air is a poor conductor of heat, > how then could atmospheric heating heat the oceans? Furthermore, I would > think that the melting of the ice cap on the North Pole would be caused by > water temperatures much more than air temperatures. > > Is it likewise ridiculous to think that the sun could also be getting > hotter? Has anyone checked lately? > > Am I missing something here, or does it really not add up? Honestly, I > can't accept that humans are THE cause of global warming, or even the most > significant cause of it, until I find answers to these questions. > > Patrick > > -- --------------------------------- Tim Nuttle, PhD Research Assistant Professor Department of Biological Sciences University of Pittsburgh A234 Langley Hall 4249 Fifth Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15260 USA ---------------------------------
