Comment Misinformation 101 (Score -1) 164
Researchers from UC Berkeley set up dozens of sensors across the Bay Area to monitor planet-warming carbon dioxide, the super-abundant greenhouse gas produced when fossil fuels are burned.
- The gas which most contributes to warming is H2O, not CO2. By a huge margin.
- There are only trace amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere. It is not the direct effect of CO2 that alarms climate researchers, but the sensitivity of the climate to heating that acts as a multiplier effect. The degree of that multiplier is estimated, not known, which is why we have multiple modeled ranges of temperature trends.
- CO2 is emitted from many sources, not just when fossil fuels are burned. It is emitted when ocean water evaporates. It is emitted when rocks weather. It is emitted when volcanoes erupt. It is emitted when plants decompose. It is emitted when ice melts.
- CO2 is sequestered, too. It is sequestered in plant growth. It is sequestered by deposition in the ocean. It is sequestered in ice.
- The earth's climate is a dynamic, non-linear, adaptive system and has never, in its entire 4.8 billion years of existence, exhibited a "tipping point" that is irreversible.