Recent content by Nihilanth

Human activities contribute far more greenhouse gases than volcanoes. The 1991 pinatubo eruption cooled the Earth for a few years afterwards (due to aerosols, not greehouse gases). Volcanoes haven't contributed to the recent global warming.

After thinking about this more I have decided that the question is at fault as it assumes a definable point at which a non-chicken became a chicken. It's like the equally flawed question "what race was the mother who gave birth to the first asian?"

Now that I think about it I think the whole idea of a point at which non-chicken becomes a chicken is the problem. Afterall humans invented the group called "chicken", and we have defined that group so vaguely that the edges gradually fade out. So there is no clear boundary to expect between...

A non-chicken creature that laid it

What a chicken is, is subjective and entirely defined by man. There are no strict genetic rules or definite boundaries on what constitutes a chicken. Distant ancestors of modern chickens will look different, and even further back they will look so different that many people will disagree...

A few hundred years ago I could imagine US citizens with firearms would be able to prevent a military dictatorship. Back then the military under control of the government had similar weapons to the population and they were quite evenly matched. But with modern warfare technology such as...

Because if any gas is present in the atmosphere long enough it will disperse evenly. They cite the scientific literature, which is about as good a source as you can get - parts bolded: Knowledge of how fast sinks can absorb carbon and how much they would have to absorb. Heat can...

Many greenhouse gases such as CO2 are well-mixed gases meaning that they are evenly distributed. Their high residence time in the atmosphere is the reason for this. CO2 molecules can stay resident for about a hundred years. One greenhouse gas that is not well mixed is water vapor. It's...

http://www.epa.gov/airtrends/aqtrnd95/image19b.gif

It's pointless. Today we are emitting about 27 billion tons of co2 a year into the atmosphere. Ten years ago we were only emitting about 23.5 billion tons a year. As the world population grows and china and india's industry grows that number will continue going up for the forseeable future...

But that has nothing to do with global warming. I am saying that the existing rate of co2 emissions is causing a warming, and co2 emissions are set to rise. There is absolutely nothing that can be done to counter this. Fighting human nature is impossible. Environmental policies like energy...

Nice ideas but I suspect their impact is so small that it will not really put a dent in the upward trend of emissions. Policies like Kyoto and the ideas you list above are pointless attempts to delay the inevitable. They aren't going to reverse the upward global co2 emission trend which is...

Fine if you are going to define speculation as something with such high certainty then I agree - all theories in science - from atomic theory, to evolution, to heliocentric theory are speculation. It is a scientific theory. Name a hole. So what? Of course actual scientists analyse...

It isn't a proof - its a criteria for falsification. Scientific theories cannot be proven full stop. Atomic theory will always be a theory, the germ theory of disease will always be a theory, even heliocentric theory will always be a theory. The same is true of evolution. The scientific...