In regards to the China thing, per capita the US is by far the biggest contributor to global warming and pollution. The fact is China has such a huge population that it is quickly taking the lead for the most polluting country. In my opinion we cant use that as a scape goat to excuse ourselves from taking positive action. Just do what you can to stop global warming!

Yes, the CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels has a different isotope. Atoms of the same element can have different numbers of neutrons and the different possible versions of each element are called isotopes. Did you read the link? It explains it much better than I can. And as for water, have you ever heard of heavy water?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_water

Teach said: As far as pollution goes, we should focus our efforts on real pollution, such as smog, urban blight, the nasty stuff that comes from car exhaust, and so on, rather then silly CO2.

Again, I agree we need to deal with pollution. How should we focus our efforts? What specifically do you think needs to be done?

As far as pollution goes, we should focus our efforts on real pollution, such as smog, urban blight, the nasty stuff that comes from car exhaust, and so on, rather then silly CO2.

Since the Guardian is a British newspaper I think they put that information in there for context. Not sure that this is something that has been “missed in this whole global warming as caused by Man debate”, but thanks for stating the obvious.

Teach said: Second, and more important, is that throughout this whole silly debate about CO2, the disciples are completely ignoring the pollution aspect. CO2 is not that bad of a gas. It’s natural. We require it for life. It has been around longer then life has existed on this planet. What we need to focus our attentions on is actual pollution. Which is worse?

The CO2 produced by man is not natural and has a different chemical signature (i.e. different amounts of isotopes) – that’s how we can measure the contribution from natural vs. man-made CO2.

http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/Report/AR4WG1_Pub_FAQs.pdf

I agree pollution is a problem. What do you think should be done about it?

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