Climate Policy

[kandrathe]

Is that where the 5.53% comes from? Remarkable accuracy, considering how little is known.

Some of the numbers are published by the DOE, here. Carbon Dioxide (with GWP=1) has a preindustrial concentration of 280 ppm, with a current concentration of 384 ppm, showing a net difference of 104 ppm. Of this 104 ppm, 15.3 ppm are from anthropogenic sources, and 88.7 ppm are from natural sources (e.g warming results in increased biologic activity which adds CO2 into the system.) So, even looking at it crudely, 15.3 / 384 = 3.98%, but the other gases while emitting in smaller amount have a higher GWP value. So, if you can accept (without counting water vapor) that CO2 accounts for about 55.33% of the warming potential, with CH4, N2O, O3, and all other trace gases contributing the other 44.67%. You can add the the column labeled "Increased radiative forcing" for yourself to see the relative ratios. According to research by S.M. Freidenreich and V. Ramaswamy, water vapor contributes roughly 95% of all global warming thus reducing the CO2 contribution to about .2%. Just by rough calculation from the published research at DOE, and NOAA. Here is another scientific viewpoint by Tim Patterson (oh, yes, another AGW scientist but as yet untarnished by oil money).

Wasn't the idea behind this all to fight climate change, instead of trying to make more profit as before?

Wow, do you really think we can stop climate change? No, my objective is to save lives and to do so while living more ecologically. While I agree that the world is over populated, I am not so heartless as to want to see the excess ones starve and freeze until we reach the new bearing population. You might have heard of the "Spaceship Earth" idea. I like earth sheltered homes, but I also think it is impractical to bull doze all the square boxy ones. We need to have a long term plan. Something better than decreasing our productivity, or increasing prices and taxes to see what breaks. The outcome of letting the system break is easy to predict, (which I have,) famine in SE Asia and Africa and a lack of heating oil for poor nations in cold climates. The two biggest factors to watch in the "index of pain" will be the price and availability of food and fuel.