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>humans only contribute 5% of the damaging greenhouse gases. (This one I just heard, I'm not saying it's true, I'm not saying it's false. I just heard it.<
Okay, from what I remember of the Chemistry courses I took in college, it goes like this:
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A lot depends on what you define as a greenhouse gas. Taking the broadest definition, water vapor is a greenhouse gas. Under that definition, the statement is probably true. Being the most common and the most potent are probably not the same thing, though.
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Also, the important thing about any greenhouse gas (again, according to what I remember of my chem classes) is not how much there is of it, but whether there is a sufficient countervailing "sink" for it through photosynthesis. For example, CO2 is produced and absorbed every day over and in the ocean (where 80% of the world's photosynthesis occurs, btw) and on land. Decomposing matter produces CO2 through the action of bacteria, for example. The concern comes when CO2 or other greenhouse gasses are produced at a rate higher than can be absorbed/converted by the environment. This is currently the case, to the tune of about 3 million tons of G-gasses per year. A lot of this comes from burning fossil fuels, which release large amounts of CO2 in a short period of time. Pretty much all scientists will agree on that. The debate among scientists and policymakers is how much of a problem this imbalance is, and how much other factors are affecting global temperatures.
Hope this helps.
-Theo
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P.S. If pipe or any of the physical sciences types out there spot a colossal scientific fuck-up in my post, feel free to let me know. (Like you guys wouldn't anyway :)
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