Venus is not an example of runaway greenhouse (was Designing SPS to accomod)

On 06/24/2013 05:28 AM, hitssquad wrote:
> --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "William" wrote:
>> --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, wrote:
>>> --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "William" wrote:
>>>> --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "hitssquad" wrote:
>>>>> CO2 isn't a pollutant (as its increasing abundance in the atmosphere provides net benefits to humanity).
>>>> I suggest you take a look at Venus to see about that one.
>>> Venus doesn't have any ice, and no one is freezing to death on it -- both unlike Earth.
>> Um, Venus has no one on it *at all*.
> Yes. As I said: "unlike Earth". Venus being too hot for people doesn't mean people wouldn't benefit from marginal increases in CO2 content of the earth's atmosphere, especially given the facts that Earth still has ice on it and people are still freezing to death on Earth.
>
> You didn't contest any of that.
CO2 is toxic to any animal life that runs on heart and lungs. It may
provide *some* indirect net benefits by making Plant life flourish, but
in the big picture, it is heating our planet's surface (a heavy blanket
gas, O2 plus the added weight of a carbon atom), acidifying our oceans,
and narrowing the threshold by which Animal life suffocates.

A demonstration of the effectiveness of CO2 as a greenhouse gas is shown
in a simple kitchen experiment in the recent episode of "Through The
Wormhole" starring Morgan Freeman. In Season 4 Episode 3 "Can We
Survive The Death of the Sun?" a scientists shows two 2-liter bottles
with thermometers being heated under sunlight (roughly 13 minutes into
the show). One is a control, but to the other he adds carbonate
tablets. The thermometers show over 7 degree F increase in heat within
30 minutes.

If you doubt the toxicity of CO2, I would NOT suggest placing a plastic
bag over one's own head. But consider that modern fumigators who tent
houses sometimes use CO2 to kill pests. Just a 5-6% concentration of
CO2 is enough to assure cardioid-pulminary arrest of anything with a
heart. It leaves less "hazardous waste" around than most pesticides,
but rest assured, it's deadly. See also "choke damp."
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/smother.asp From the article:
> One person, recounting the fate of eight men and one woman who walked
> into an area where the gas had accumulated, said they "fell down dead,
> as if they had been shot." Another narrative of a different death said
> the stricken miner was "without access to cry but once 'God's mercy.'"

~ Twisty