I am a Climate Change (human caused) agnostic.

[rightsideout]

329. CO2 Levels in the US have actually been dropping

Three reasons for the drop in CO2.

1) Believe it or not, market forces may play a part in reducing CO2 levels. The biggest reason CO2 levels have gone down in the US, to 1990 levels, is aging coal power plants have been taken offline and replaced with more efficient natural gas plants. Natural gas prices are now competitive with coal. Reduce coal burning plants worldwide and CO2 levels will go down significantly.

2) Another reason for the CO2 drop in the US is less demand for gasoline. Yes, more fuel efficient cars are helping to reduce CO2 levels and the demand for gasoline. Those hybrid and electric cars Fox news likes to make fun of are actually helping to reduce gas demand and CO2 emissions even if electric cars are charged from coal plants. 1/3 of Californian's who own Nissan Leafs charge their cars from solar arrays on their homes and more people who own electric and plug-in hybrid cars are going solar. Generally, gas cars today are more fuel efficient. And of course, when gas prices go higher people drive less. All this combined has caused less demand for gasoline in the US.

3) Another reason for the CO2 drop is that the winters in the US have been more moderate so home heating usage has gone down. That is ironic, warming climates causing less man made CO2.

So the technology already exists to reduce CO2 gasses (I won't call CO2 a pollutant, it's a gas). The US has been reducing CO2 and no one has acknowledged it. By far, the largest drop in CO2 in the US had been due to taking aging coal plants offline. That's pretty much the number one reason for the drop. We need to get other industrialized nations to follow our lead and explore cleaner sources of fuel for their power plants.

As far as Climate Change being "man made" we've been through this before with ozone layer depletion. I don't get how anyone can say man has no effect on this planet when one man made chlorofluorocarbon chlorine molecule has been proven to destroy 100,000 ozone layer molecules. We banned ozone depleting refrigerants and aerosols which improved the health of the ozone layer.

So why the sudden denial that man has no effect on the planet when we've been through this before? You can thank the carbon industry for its part by supporting politicians that fight for big oil and fight against advances for alternative energy. Then you have deniers like Fox News and the sheeple that listen to it.

The big difference between the ozone scare and the climate change scare are the corporations behind it. CFCs didn't have as big a cheering section or as much political pull as the carbon fuel industry.

As far as the other US citizens or agnostics that continue to deny it, it's time to just ignore them and move on without them. They are becoming the minority. Let them keep yammering to themselves it's not happening.