[quote]but I've yet to hear a rational explanation of how miniscule increases in an atmospheric trace gas such as CO2, causes the earth to warm.[/quote] It's because CO2 & methane are transparent to visible light but more opaque to infrared. The solar energy comes pouring in via the visible spectrum, but the heat can't leave so easily via the infrared spectrum due to that opacity. Kids' version: https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/explainer-co2-and-other-greenhouse-gases idealized quantitative model: https://www.climate-policy-watcher.org/coriolis-force/a-simple-mathematical-model-of-the-greenhouse-effect.html
[quote] In order to actually prove human carbon emissions influence climate, all variables would have to remain constant[/quote] Nope. With multiple data points we can solve for multiple variables simultaneously. Detailed climate models account for all the variables you list and more. They are verified and calibrated based on 800,000 years of prior climate data. http://web.mit.edu/globalchange/www/climate.html
[quote] Global warming models are based on small amounts of data. The earth is 4.6 billion years old, and we are expected to believe they can draw conclusions based on a hockey stick graph with 50 years of data?[/quote] Nope, not 50 years, 800,000 years, covering about 7 ice ages. The climate data comes from bubbles in glacial ice, and is corroborated by data from lake & sea floor sediments. https://icecores.org/about-ice-cores CO2 & methane & temp data Here's [i]where[/i] the various data sets were collected: The most salient thing about the 800,000 years of climate data is the rate of change during those previous 7 ice ages compared to the current rate of change this century.
[quote] Where does the money for climate research come from?[/quote] Fair question. Equally fair: where does the money for climate denial come from? The US oil industry makes about $110 [i]billion[/i] per year; coal another $20 billion. Big Oil spends $3.6 billion per year on advertising; a sum equal to about 8X the whole NSF climate budget. You're not naive enough to believe [i]none[/i] of that money goes to propaganda, are you?
@hippyjoe1955 NONE of them are owned by any of the 20 largest oil firms in the world. NONE. But feel free to re-define any and every private equity fund as "big oil" [b]LOL!!![/b]
Democracy, checks and balances, and transparency keep the dishonest government in check. But I do agree that the government is bought by corporations, which happens under Capitalism. That's another reason why we should end Capitalism. Glad you've become a Leftist.
@hippyjoe1955 Oh, so I didn't say that the USA is "the worst" on this post, I said it on one of my own? Cool. Should be very easy for you to provide a link to the post where I say that.
@BohemianBoo As per usual, dippy is being completely transparent.............in his puerile attempts at gaslighting.
"Checks and balances don't work because power corrupts blah, blah, blah".
What he really means is that, with regulation, checks and balances and, transparency, the Christo-fascist regimes that he wants to see in place everywhere simply wouldn't be able to exist.
@room101 Yeah, it seems like his strategy is to say that these things don't work, so why bother to have them? We might as well just be China. And by the way, some people who say these things don't work are good faith. They're just doomers. But considering Dippy is an actual Fascist, it's more likely that he's arguing in bad faith.
Cute how you're still confusing climate with weather, LOL!!!
Actually, internationally cooperative governmental regulations lowered CFC usage by over 99%, thus fixing the ozone hole. So there's proof it can be done.
idealized quantitative model: https://www.climate-policy-watcher.org/coriolis-force/a-simple-mathematical-model-of-the-greenhouse-effect.html
http://web.mit.edu/globalchange/www/climate.html
