I have been thinkink about something... First take a look at this video, and then read the rest of this post.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr72CHwpdH4 (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr72CHwpdH4)
Now... What I want to know is, if the scientists are saying that we are pumping too much CO2 into the atmosphere, how can it be true. It states in the video that CO2 is heavier than air, so how can it be up in the atmosphere when it should be on ground level.
The way I see it is if CO2 is heavier than air, then it should be underneath the air that we breath, therefor suffocating every living animal and human being that is land based.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Even though CO2 is heavier than air, it's not so much heavier that air currents do not disperse it into the atmosphere.
The simple fact that CO2 is given off in heat form would tell you why it rises and gets trapped at differnt stages and comes down in differnt forms like acid rain ... But you are correct it is a less oxygen rich enviornment then it used to be a couple decades ago at ground level... The pollution from it comes in many poisioning and suffocating forms and it is happening every day acid rain is just one example... Transport of oil is a very risky business as well...
All CO2 seems to be from burning so initially it does rise...
But just think if nuclear waste is contained on an island or in a remote part of a desert which is far more harmful and further away liveable conditions exsist this is why we have not seen the full net effect of CO2 emissions yet. The earth is extrodinarly large ecosystem it is able to survive many catastorphes. But if we continue down the path of carbon the net effect will effect the whole eco system slowly but surely. The more nuclear reactors we put up the worse off we are as well! And the United States is about to approve 3 more of them soon. Its amazing how the government seems to take advantage of every crisis situation it runs across.
By the way a good example of what you talk of is california and the smog they expirence there in the summer months when the air is warmer the CO2 tends to linger and create poor living conditions you are correct in your thinking to a degree ...
-infringer-
Is it possible to just pump it underground, out of site and out of mind ?
Sure it is possible but it may effect our drinking water if we do it at our homes and it would also be tough to do driving at 60mph two real engineering challanges this idea poses ... It would have less effect in the air because plants use it... and the natural move ments of air currents and water currents and alge in places without currents seem to produce excess of alge and this could be a good reason why we see more and more algee...
Anyhow the thought is worth pondering but unless you could grow algee underground in a tank the size of a football field because the rate at which CO2 is dispursed into the air no conventional tank ie. septic would handle the amount dispursed from this with algee ...
However there has been a movement in this area do some searching on google and people have made CO2 collectors that do collect a fair amount and could reduce CO2 emissions pretty well...
I think its all a means to an end really OU or alternative methods of power generation would prove much more useful...
Hopefully my post was not a waste and hope it was helpful.