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Science Forum Index » Geology - Meteorology Forum » Don't Humans produce CO2?
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| Bob Brown |
 Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:25 pm |
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Since we humans produce CO2, has anyone looked into the fact that our
population of 6 Billion could have some factor in increasing levels of
CO2 in the atmosphere?
I'm thinking of a comparison of human breathing when the population
was 100,000 and today is 6 Billion people?
What's the average amount of CO2 humans expel through breathing in one
year? Multiply this by 6 Billion people and wouldn't we be talking
about a lot of CO2 as compared to say 5,000 years ago?
I doubt anyone will answer my questions because you're assumption is I
want to poke holes in the MAN MADE global warming theory.
BTW - The debate is not whether Global Warming is happening. The
debate is whether human actions/activity is the cause. I give all the
blame to the Sun and the 6 Billion people breathing out CO2. Am I
wrong?
NOTE: I have no defense to offer to the fossil fuel burners but would
like to get some answers on what I have asked please. [holding breath
for replies, no pun intended] |
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| D Smith |
| Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 5:45 pm |
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Bob Brown <.> writes:
Quote: Since we humans produce CO2, has anyone looked into the fact that our
population of 6 Billion could have some factor in increasing levels of
CO2 in the atmosphere?
Executive summary: yes. And the scietnific conclusion is that the human
role in atmospheric CO2 increases is our burning of fossil fuels, not
our breathing.
Quote: I'm thinking of a comparison of human breathing when the population
was 100,000 and today is 6 Billion people?
Yes, humans exhale CO2. That CO2 comes from burning (oxidizing) the
food that we eat, which is where the carbon comes from. Unless you
are losing weight, it does not come from the carbon you have stored in
your body.
Quote: What's the average amount of CO2 humans expel through breathing in one
year? Multiply this by 6 Billion people and wouldn't we be talking
about a lot of CO2 as compared to say 5,000 years ago?
We also store some of the carbon that we eat: since humans don't
photosynethsis, our food is the only source of carbon to build biomass. As
our weight (individually or collectively) increases, we store more carbon.
So, what you have to ask is, how much biomass is stored in humans, and
is it increasing or decreasing? What is the collective weight of 100,000
people (and the proportion of that total weight that is carbon), and
how does that compare to the total carbon stored in 6 billion people?
I don't even need to try a back-of-the-envelope calculation to know
that there is more carbon stored in people today than there was 5,000
years ago. This means that humans are a store of carbon, that the store is
increasing in size, thus removing carbon from the rest of the system. The
ultimate origin or human-stored carbon is plants, via photosynthesis
(albeit some comes indirectly through other animals we eat). The
photosynthesis has happened recently (days, weeks, months, perhaps years
if you left the food in the freezer too long). Thus, the CO2 that we
breath out today came out of the atmosphere (plant photosynthesis) very
recently, and we are just returning it back with no net change.
Humans are NOT the source of the increase of atmospheric CO2, at least
as far as humans breathing out CO2 is concerned.
When we burn fossil fuels, we are adding carbon (as CO2) to the
atmosphere that was removed millions of years ago, not recently. Thus, the
net effect is NOT balanced.
Quote: I doubt anyone will answer my questions because you're assumption is I
want to poke holes in the MAN MADE global warming theory.
Proven wrong: I've answered.
Quote: BTW - The debate is not whether Global Warming is happening. The
debate is whether human actions/activity is the cause. I give all the
blame to the Sun and the 6 Billion people breathing out CO2. Am I
wrong?
Yes. You are very, very wrong.
Quote: NOTE: I have no defense to offer to the fossil fuel burners but would
like to get some answers on what I have asked please. [holding breath
for replies, no pun intended]
Now, will you discuss my answer, or will you just continue spouting
your uninformed (or perhaps deliberately misleading) opinion?
[I will NOT be holding my breath.] |
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