Sunday, January 30, 2011

This Semester's Topic

I have decided to argue that man-related emissions of Carbon Dioxide, or CO2, have not caused global warming.  I decided to pick this topic because it has caused the United States government and others to make what are, in my opinion, poor choices that will decrease our quality of life, making any evidence about it important information to have on the table.  At this point, I do not know much about the issue except that CO2 makes up an extremely small percent of the atmosphere and that water vapour is by far the number one green house gas.  I also believe that satellite data shows that the earth has not actually been warming as much as people have been saying,  but I have not heard this from a reputable source.  Obviously, I hope to learn that I am right and find evidence that CO2 has not caused global warming, but I will endeavor to remain open to the facts.  In particular, I hope to find how much CO2 actually contributes to the green house affect and whether man-related emissions have increased the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere sufficiently to contribute significantly to the preexisting temperature cycles the earth has been undergoing long before people began using oil.  I think that the ideal audience for my blog would be someone who wants to find information they can use in discussions with their friends on the issue.  If I'm not mistaken this is a rather small portion of the American population, but I guess I can pretend that such people exist.  By the way, you're probably wondering why in the world I named my blog "que sais je?"  The phrase is French for "what do I know?"  Beyond that, however, I have no idea why I picked it.  I'll let you know if I ever find out.