Global warming, facts pls

[Ravenshire]

So I did a bit of research and found that carbon dioxide is responsible for less than 25% of the total greenhouse effect, and human activity accounts for less than 25% of that.

Bullshit! Human activity accounts for nearly nearly ALL of the change in CO2 levels. Total CO2 is a combination of rather static levels of carbon in the atmosphere within the carbon cycle. Most of the land mass is covered in seasonal vegetation where plants extract co2 from the air to create plant products during the spring and summer months, but that carbon is released again with the vegetation die-off by decomposition and combustion. This is why the atmospheric CO2 levels have such a distinct seasonal pattern. There are more longterm patterns in the cycle as well matching with longer term plant die off. Some vegetation is buried before full decomposition and converts to fossil fuels over long periods of time. It is the extraction and burning of these fuels that brings new carbon into play and becomes a huge agent of change. The carbon stored in the perma-frost in the artic is the largest trigger event looming. If the typical fill-up at the pump of 15 gallons weighs about 6.4 lbs x 15 = 96 lbs and 85 % of that is carbon which gives us 81.5 lbs of carbon. When this is combined with oxygen from the air you get about 300 lbs of CO2 going into the air that already had a "normal" CO2 cycle balance. With one fill-up! Multiply that by the number of cars in our history and adding in all the coal and natural gas being burnt as well and only a madman would think it would have no adverse effect.

I suppose that climate deniers would also support dumping trash in the grand canyon as it would take years for that to effect the globe as well..

On top of this you have methane release. The largest currently is from the rotting of previously frozen vegetation in the arctic and sub-arctic. The second largest is from hydraulic fracturing. Not only does it release methane as a primary result (methane from frakked wells is almost always simply vented to to atmosphere) but during the refining of natural gases, methane is separated out and incompletely burned through "flaring" or, again, just vented to the atmosphere. Methane is 4 times more effective as a greenhouse gas than CO2. To say we're killing the planet is over-dramatic, but we are destroying the habitat on this planet that we depend on to survive. The worst part is, there are viable alternatives.