Does carbon dioxide have an effect on air temperature?

Answer 1

Just as it affects everything else. If you cool it enough it will turn into a solid (dry ice). Carbon dioxide is somewhat unique in that it doesn't often exist in the liquid phase -- it sublimes and passes directly from the solid state into the gas state. The hotter it is, the faster the gaseous molecules will move!

Answer 2

Yes, It absolutely does. CO2 is a heat trapping gas. Studies show it traps heat in our atmosphere as readily as it does within greenhouses.

Further studies have shown that previous declines in CO2 lead to falling temperatures, whereas the last deglaciation was preceded by a rise in atmospheric CO2. At present, due to Milankovitch Cycles, our earth should have entered a very gradual cooling phase, culminating in the onset of another ice age beginning some 30 thousand years hence. We should NOT be rapidly warming, as we are now, apart from the dramatic increase in atmospheric CO2.

Virtually every scientific organization around the world concurs the evidence indicating anthropogenic global warming is both substantial and convincing, and have issued statements to this effect. These include the AAAS, FASTS, NRC, Royal Society of the UK, ESF, ACS, American Institute of Physics, European Physical Society, American Geophysical Union, IUGG, NAGT, AMS ("The dominant cause of the warming since the 1950s is human activities"), and CFCAS ("We concur with the climate science assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] in 2001").

CO2 may not always precede climate change, but it certainly can and has.

Another Answer:

Sorry Mike, but there is no scientific evidence that the levels of CO2 in our atmosphere are capable of driving temperature. As a matter of fact, there is string evidence it can't. In all of history, according to several different methods of determining temp and CO2, we have yet to see CO2 led temperature. We have seen periods of abnormally high CO2 levels during times of cooling and times of abnormally low CO2 during warming trends. We also know why this occurs. The oceans absorb most of the CO2 in our atmosphere. During periods of warmer temperatures we see that they are not capable of absorbing CO2 as quickly. The causes CO2 to rise 20 to 800 years slower then temperature. When the planet cools, the opposite is true. It takes 20 to 800 years after the cooling starts to see a change in CO2 levels.

The current levels of CO2 in urban areas is 0.039%. In Greenland and other remote areas we see levels close to 300 ppm. Using Vostok ice core sample the norm thousands of years ago was between 278 to 300 ppm or 0.3%. Roughly the same as today taking into account error factors in the samples. Milankovich studied the issue of warming cycles in 1919 and predicted the current temps. Vostok shows four previous cycles identical to this one, including teh lagging CO2. Most importantly this warming trend started 6000 years ago and it has warmed 11 degrees C. Only 0.2 to0.4 of that is since we started using fossil fuels and most of that in the start of the 20th century. The temps have crested in 1999. Between 1938 and 1999 we have been relativity stable. Since 1999 our oceans have cooled 0.2 degrees.

CO2 is a follower of temp, not a leader.

Answer 3

CO2 is the major man made green house gas.The amount of CO2 is rising every year because of human activity.CO2 form a blanket in earth atmosphere trapping the sunlight and increase the surface temperature.This in turn cause more water vapor retention in the air which is in fact the largest contributor of green house effect.Thus earths atmospheric and surface temperature further rise.Massive reduction of CO2 from atmosphere will reduce the global temperature.This can be achieved by reducing the burning of fossil fuels(coal,petroleum products).

Answer 4

carbon dioxide is important, and no one would argue against it. It is a necessary component of the atmosphere, as much as Vitamin D is necessary to the human diet. However, excess Vitamin D in the diet can be extremely toxic . Living systems, be they an ecosystem or an organism, require that a delicate balance be maintained between certain elements and/or compounds in order for the system to function normally. When one substance is present in excess and as a result threatens the well-being of an ecosystem, it becomes toxic, and could be considered to be a pollutant, despite the fact that it is required in small quantities.

Answer 5

Yes, carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas causing global warming.

Answer 6

It increases. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that absorbs heat.