Rubenerd

I read this comment on an ABC Australia blog talking about human population growth and climate change and despite having other work to do I couldn't help but comment on it. It's an impulse thing.

freddy fentinghorn:

t is extroadinary!!!!
just the co2 that each of us breathes out each time we take a breathe!! amounts to a huge impact on emmissions,
lets see, i am no mathematics teacher but>>

[sic] [sic] [sic]

That's the potential problem with using a far out example in order to make a mockery of a proposition; sometimes you end up making more of a mockery of yourself!

There's a huge difference between human respiration and fossil fuels. We release carbon dioxide as a result of eating and being alive, and what we eat got carbon dioxide from the biosphere. By contrast, fossil fuels act as natural carbon capture and storage before humans decide to dig them out of the ground and burn them which does affect the balance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The only argument one could make about humans breathing out too much carbon dioxide and contributing to the enhanced greenhouse effect is that as the human population grows, land has to be cleared to grow food and pollution goes up.