Scientific American debunks right-wing global warming nonsense

[pokerfan]

I love a good smack-down.

In making a case against CO2 as a greenhouse gas, the Galileo Movement relies on irrelevant facts while omitting pertinent ones

DailyClimate.org took up Smeed's challenge and passed the fact sheet on to a climate scientist – Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Science. He also publishes the blog RealClimate.org, one of the more-respected climate science blogs.

"You've got true facts," Schmidt said of the Galileo Movement's pamphlet. "They're just not the relevant facts."

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-carbon-dioxide-is-greenhouse-gas

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Among other things, they call CO2 a "nontoxic gas" ...

actually, CO2 is toxic to humans and other animals.

[Maine_Nurse]

2. Uhhh, so is oxygen. Just sayin.nt

[JDPriestly]

4. Yes, it is all a matter of balance.

And that is what the right-wingers cannot understand.

Proportion, living in proportion to the needs of others around you and the world itself.

Viewing others and the world with a proportion or measure of openness to new ideas and to reason.

It's amazing how intellectually dull people are.

Do they have to suffocate in CO2 before they will pay attention and understand what is being explained to them?

Prove the world is round. Prove it to me. I won't believe it until I travel all the way around it on a speed boat all by myself. And then, I bet you still can't prove it's round. It never looks round. It always looks flat to me. So it must be flat.

[pokerfan]

5. Not in the levels they're talking about

Title: Carbon Dioxide Tolerance and Toxicity
Publisher: PENNSYLVANIA UNIV PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Citation: IFEM Report No. 2-71

Abstract: Carbon Dioxide is a normal body constituent, continually produced by oxidative metabolism. Its hydration leads to formation of hydrogen ions and the establishment of a bicarbonate buffer system in blood and other vital body fluuids. In its numerous normal roles in body function carbon dioxide is a key chemical messenger substance in the linking of respiration, general circulation and local vascular responce to the demands of metabolism both at rest and exercise. In its normal, active role as an agent in the respiratory, circulatory and renal control systems, intrinsically produced carbon dioxide is not a toxin. It is an essential factor in the determination of the normal acid-base balance required for enzymatic reactions. Inhaled carbon dioxide produces the same physiological effects as does carbon dioxide produced metabolically. These effects appear to result from the acidosis induced by carbon dioxide reaction with water, rather than by the CO2 molecule itself. Toxic effects of CO2 do occur when such high concentrations of CO2 are inhaled that severe and disruptive cellular acidosis occurs. This acidosis and its effects are alleviated by lowering the inhaled concentration of CO2. Adaptation to moderate inspired concentrations of carbon dioxide (to three and four percent) occurs in normal men who can tolerate continuous inhalation of three percent inspired CO2 for at least one month and four percent inspired CO2 for over a week. Because the effects produced by low and moderate concentrations of carbon dioxide are physiological and reversible, rather than toxic and damaging, it is recommended that the allowable inspired levels of carbon dioxide be increased from 0.5 to 2.0 percent in inspired air. This level has not been shown too induce decrement in performance or in normal physical activity.

http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3861

[JDPriestly]

3. Why do people comment on articles published by Scientific American

if they 1) don't believe in science, 2) don't read the footnotes and sources when available and 3) don't understand what they read?

It's puzzling. Where do these people come from?

[DetlefK]

6. Water is also a non-toxic greenhouse-gas.

And plants need it.
And it has been around forever.

So nothing bad will happen, if the humidity increases on global levels. Right?