Reply #11: The whole global warming / greenhouse issue is complicated to... [View All]

[tjwash]

...say the very least. Ironically, the worst thing we could do, even it it were technologically possible, would be to instantly switch to hydrogen powered cars and supply all of our electrical needs through non green house emitting means. It needs to be done in stages, and very slowly.

It would take an entire library full of meteorological textbooks to show you everything, but in a nutshell, mankind emits a of a lot of green house gasses, such as carbon dioxide. Plants and algae live on carbon dioxide. They grow and thrive, because there's plenty of the stuff that they subsist on around. Already, this effect is clearly seen in oceans, where algae and plankton are more abundant than ever. But now, say that all of a sudden, we switch to other, cleaner fuels. Because there are so many algae and plants; the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere will drop. But all those extra plants and algae will still be there, sucking up all carbon dioxide they can get. In a short period of time, they will suck almost all carbon dioxide out of the Earth's atmosphere. Then we have the opposite problem, there is nothing left to hold the warmth in, and we get an ice age.

Like I said, theoretically it's complicated as hell, and weaning ourselves off of CO2 producing fuels needs to be done in stages.