JoyV

Considering that ALL the man made CO2 emissions combined do not come close to being 1/3rd of the atmospheric CO2, CO2 emissions from motor vehicles CANNOT make up 1/3rd of the atmospheric CO2. The largest part comes from the oceans. Another large part from dying decaying plants. Mammal exhalations. Deforestation. Volcanos. Natural CO2 emissions account for 80+% of atmospheric CO2.

As for whether CO2 is a cause or a symptom of warming, there is less evidence of it being a cause than a symptom. Although it could be partly one and the other. In other words, life itself contributes to a warmer climate.

JoyV

We are getting more rainfall in the southwest. Strike that. If you simply measure the amount of rainfall in the year, it probably is not very different. But instead of most of the year being dry, and the monsoons dropping all but a fraction of the yearly rainfall within a few weeks; we get rain which is far less intense over far more time in the year. This spring the countryside was still green when the monsoon season started. The last few years we have had more and more winter precipitation (rain and snow) than normal. And our monsoon rains have been gentler and lasting for many hours at a time including sometimes all day and night instead of crashing down and over within a few hours with inches of rain. There have been no rescues of cars washed away when a dry wash which a road crosses suddenly has racing floodwaters within minutes or even seconds catching careless drivers unaware. By careless I mean drivers who when seeing a storm approaching do not avoid the county roads with low spots and take detours to the state roads which do not dip into washes.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

You're exactly right. The ice cores show CO2 to rise after warming and then, in a positive feedback loop, contribute to it. But no doubt about it, the warming comes first!

We're finding out the same thing about blood cholesterol levels and heart disease. A few years ago the AMA head stated that they had just assumed that elevated cholesterol levels caused heart disease but apparently that isn't the case.

I hear that the concentration of fire fighters rises as the number of fires increased, but I don't think we've ever said high levels of fire fighters caused fires! LOL!

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

I had heard once that a leading cause of death in the desert is, ironically, drowning.

JoyV

Yup. In the 90s, we instituted a "stupid motorist law".

{The "stupid-motorist law" is a law in the U.S. state of Arizona that states that any motorist who becomes stranded after driving around barricades to enter a flooded stretch of roadway may be charged for the cost of their rescue. The law corresponds to section 28-910 of the Arizona Revised Statutes.[1]

If public emergency services (such as a fire department or paramedics) are called to rescue a flooded motorist and tow the vehicle out of danger in Arizona, the cost of those services can be billed to the motorist, plus additional liability of up to $2,000.[2] Motorists are only liable if water already covers the road, barriers are in place but bypassed, and people are rescued from a vehicle.[2] The 'stupid-motorist law' is not a chargeable statute; to be fined under the law, a motorist must commit at least one other violation.[3]}

The law was enacted after a monsoon season where there were multiple needless but expensive and dangerous rescues. The straw that broke the camels back was when a man drove around a sawhorse barrier with flashing lights to cross a wash which had rising water. Midway through the flash flood hit. The car tipped to the side and the man climbed out his window leaving behind his toddler. He sat on the car and when helicopter rescue took him off the car, he never even mentioned the kid. Before the rescuers took the man to the hospital, someone saw a hand reaching out of the window. The car was now racing away and tumbling. Two rescuers were dropped by the copter. They did rescue the toddler and he was resuscitated and brought in critical condition to the hospital. He survived but the copter, in trying to stay over the car, got into trouble and crashed (actually did a controlled hard landing). No one died. The man threatened to sue for being treated to unprofessional language by the rescuers. The stupid motorist law passed by a landslide!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupid_Motorist_Law

eagleye13 Loc: Fl

Flash floods come up from out of nowhere. My parents barely escaped one in their car out in the dessert.