Canada Can Breathe Easier

[Curiosity]

Calgary Sun ^ | 2006-11-14 | Licia Corbella



Canadian Production of CO2....
Two percent.
That's how much of the world's man-made CO2 Canada produces. Most Canadians don't know that. We are, as the saying goes, the proverbial "drop in the bucket."
So, now that you know the truth, consider this: What would happen if Canada were never to produce another man-made CO2 molecule ever again?
If every man, woman and child never exhaled again and therefore never produced anymore hated CO2, what would be the effect?
What would happen if all Canadians just disappeared and therefore all that hated machinery and technology that makes survival through a Canadian winter possible, just sat idle? No cars driving around, no need to heat homes or turn on lights. No more plants and factories. What would the effect on the global climate be?
Absolutely nothing at all.
The world's climate "would not change at all," says Dr. Tim Ball, a retired professor of climatology at the University of Winnipeg for 28 years and the current chairman of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project.
Just to be sure, I called Dr. Willie Soon, an astrophysicist with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
"This is my opinion, not the Center's," he says, "but if all of Canadian man-made CO2 was removed, the effect on the Earth's temperature would be minuscule -- immeasurable."
Yesterday, thanks in large part to Canada's opposition MPs bad-mouthing their own country at the UN climate change conference in Kenya, Canada received the "fossil of the day" award along with Australia for ranking low on an environmental group's list for efforts to combat global warming.
"The majority of Canadians are firmly and strongly behind living up to our Kyoto obligations," said John Godfrey, the Liberal environment critic. Did he blush? It didn't say in The Canadian Press story, but he should have, since during the last 12 years of Liberal rule, CO2 emissions increased in Canada by about 30% and the Liberals' plan to combat greenhouse gas wasn't released until their last year in power. For shame. Not that it would have done anything to the world's climate anyway had they got cracking in the early '90s.
Both Drs. Ball and Soon went into long and scientific reasons why they believe there is no link between rising CO2 levels and rising Earth temperatures, even forwarding complicated scientific articles and papers for me to read.
Both men agree since 1680, the tail-end of the Little Ice Age, the world has been warming, but they attribute most of the warming to sun cycles, not CO2 -- which makes up less than 4% of the atmosphere.
Indeed, ice-core data show when CO2 levels were 16 times higher than they are today, the world was covered in ice!
"The world has actually been cooling since 1998 even though man-made CO2 levels have increased," said Ball, from his home in Victoria, "but I bet that's not going to be mentioned in Nairobi."
Call it an "inconvenient truth."
"If their theory is correct, that increased CO2 levels causes warming, then the temperatures should be going up all the time, but they're not," pointed out Ball.
Dr. Soon gets more poetic. "Looking for the climate impact of CO2 is really like searching for a needle in the haystack.
"The idea that you have a CO2 knob that you can adjust up and down just to get an optimal climate is a great flaw in the non-scientific discussion of global warming," added Soon. For Canadians who don't believe the facts in this column, here's a suggestion: Turn off your furnace, walk or cycle to work and stop breathing. The rest of you, feel free to exhale.

Right - turn off your furnace - sure

 

[Kreskin]

Is it ok if I release some methane?

 

[tamarin]

I think we'll argue about this one 'til the first human fries. Will we ever reach consensus? On a related note, it's big news today that another scientific inquiry team has ascertained that the world's forests aren't under the threat we've been told (by other scientists natch). In fact, globally the health of forests is improving.
I thank them for that.
One of the great ironies of our time is the discovery that science, rather than being the certain and confirming centre of our culture, is no more firm than a sponge.
The greatest thinkers of our time will not be found in the scientific community. You'll find them on the street and their greatest gift will be common sense.

 

[Kreskin]

Every single person is the "proverbial drop in the bucket". I guess we're just someone elses problem.

I'm not surprised we are 2%. That's about where we are on the global financial markets as well. Aren't we about .5% of the world's population? Our CO2 levels are quadruple the world average on a per capita basis.

 

[Sassylassie]

I'm a firm believer in practicing what I preach, I recycle everything, I compost-I have two composters and a green bin, I dumpster dive and restore things to donate to the furniture bank, I don't eat processed food ergo less packaging, I use no chemicals in my home except baking soda and vinegar and in the yard liguid sea weed. If our government wants to do nothing but give lip service to the environment let we the little people embarress them into action. I own one truck, I would love to have access daily to a motor vehicle but if I can walk it in an hour I won't drive. We the unwashed masses will be the ones left to deal with the dithers, albeit pro or con on Global Warming. I'm not counting on any Feds solving this problemo.

Kreskin wait until I leave this thread before you release any methane please.

 

[CDNBear]

Not to ruffle feathers, but where's Juan. Isn't this along the lines of what I was saying about the "doomsdayers", and Kyoto was based on junk science.

I hate being vindicated, really I do.


You mean like this Kreskin?

 

[Sassylassie]

MEN, I hate the pull my finger joke it's not funny boys. Stop it. I'm not sure if it's really junk science Bear it's more like I don't trust the Scientists whom do these studies because someone is paying them and like most things political the person hired tends to lean towards the Client ethos remember DFO has done more damage to the Fisheries than any fishermen. I would like to see an independant point of view thou. I believe the warmest summer in Canada was in the 1930's and 400 people died, we haven't had that kind of death toll since but now we have air conditioners. Mean while I will continue being a good enviro friendly lass. It can't hurt.

 

[Dalreg]

I will refrain from releasing methane as much as possible. I agree what was stated above if we produce 2% sure it is a drop in the bucket, but our population is about 0.004% (30 million us. 6.5 billion world) So we should be dooing as much as possible to reduce our output.

 

[OakServe]

I'm a firm believer in practicing what I preach, I recycle everything, I compost-I have two composters and a green bin, I dumpster dive and restore things to donate to the furniture bank, I don't eat processed food ergo less packaging, I use no chemicals in my home except baking soda and vinegar and in the yard liguid sea weed. If our government wants to do nothing but give lip service to the environment let we the little people embarress them into action. I own one truck, I would love to have access daily to a motor vehicle but if I can walk it in an hour I won't drive. We the unwashed masses will be the ones left to deal with the dithers, albeit pro or con on Global Warming. I'm not counting on any Feds solving this problemo.

that's good but industry will play an enmormous role. cutting down industry emissions and "environmentalizing" our vehicles are the biggest problems.

 

[BitWhys]

if you torture statistics long enough, they'll confess anything.

we're among the worst for BOTH per cap and total emmissions. there's 192 countries in the world. having a bigger impact would be a good thing? I don't think so.

btw, 0.5% of world pop. you forgot too multiply by 100. that's still 4 times the average.