Reply To: Injection of fuel and pulsing

[Viking Coder]

JimmyT wrote: The ice caps are melting on Mars too.

http://skepticalscience.com/global-warming-on-mars.htm

Martian climate is primarily driven by dust and albedo and there is little empirical evidence that Mars is showing long term warming.

JimmyT wrote: We should drill in ANWR.

http://www.anwr.org/features/pdfs/ANWR_estimates.pdf
median estimate of technically recoverable reserve – 10.3 billion barrels

That figure is provided by the ANWR drilling lobbyist group, Arctic Power.

ANWR is estimated to have a 30-50 year production lifespan. If the mean of 40 years is taken, ANWR production (~700 thousand barrels/day) would account for 3.4% of current (2005) US oil consumption.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/us.html

As Brian H put it, “a short-term, expensive, and relatively trivial source.”

Brian H wrote: CO2 has about 5% of the influence of water vapour in the atmosphere.

http://skepticalscience.com/water-vapor-greenhouse-gas.htm

Water vapour is indeed the most dominant greenhouse gas. The radiative forcing for water is around 75 W/m2 while carbon dioxide contributes 32 W/m2 (Kiehl 1997). Water vapour is also the dominant positive feedback in our climate system and a major reason why temperature is so sensitive to changes in CO2.

Unlike external forcings such as CO2 which can be added to the atmosphere, the level of water vapour in the atmosphere is a function of temperature. Water vapour is brought into the atmosphere via evaporation – the rate depends on the ocean and air temperature and is governed by the Clausius-Clapeyron relation.

If extra water is added to the atmosphere, it condenses and falls as rain or snow within a week or two. Similarly, if somehow moisture was sucked out of the atmosphere, evaporation would restore water vapour levels to ‘normal levels’ in short time.

Brian H wrote: geologically, CO2 spikes TRAIL global temperature spikes by about 800 years

http://skepticalscience.com/co2-lags-temperature.htm

The CO2 record confirms both the amplifying effect of atmospheric CO2 and how sensitive climate is to change.

I don’t have a “just in case” position. I have a “look at all the science, not just that which supports your preconceived notions” position. The skepticalscience.com site backs up all of its articles with peer-reviewed research papers.