Posting #51:- "Is Global Warming Caused By Man?"
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"Great spirits have always encountered violent oppositions from
mediocre minds." - A. Einstein
There has been an enormous publicity effort in the recent years to get the public to accept the idea that the release of greenhouse gases, mainly CO2, has resulted in an inexorable rise in the surface temperature of the Earth. A pair of graphs on page 6 of an interesting book, "An Inconvenient Book" by Glenn Beck, shows that premise to be completely false. (I am currently attempting to determine the source and validity of the data.) These graphs cover a period of time between 1870 and 2000. As anyone with more than a double digit IQ can plainly see, if this data is valid, then what we assert to be global warming is due to Solar activity and not to man's activities. Furthermore, the correlation is so obvious that a reasonable man would assert that the Global Warming scare does not represent truth but is propaganda for some ulterior motive. No scientist could be stupid enough not to recognize the implications of these curves and have survived the PhD process.
The first pair of curves shows artic temperatures over the 130 year period and the solar activity. The correlation between the curves is almost perfect, indicating an extremely strong cause and effect relationship! The second pair of curves shows the CO2 content of the atmosphere and the arctic temperature over the same time period. The correlation between these curves is virtually non-existent. Providing I am able to verify the data represented by these curves, it is reasonable for me to assert that Al Gore et al are not merely mistaken, they are deliberately lying.
In all of the discussions of global warming, it has not been possible to find any description of the actual mechanism by which CO2 etc. affect the surface temperature of the Earth. All of the discussions seem to assume that it is the amount of greenhouse gasses in the volume of the atmosphere which control the Earth's surface temperature. That assumption is false! Earth's temperature is determined by the altitude of the CO2 horizon. It is at this altitude and below the greenhouse gases cause the atmosphere to be opaque to the 10 to 14.5 micron band of electromagnetic radiation. It is the greenhouse gases at this altitude that radiate the Earth's energy input (internal and solar) to space. No greenhouse radiation to space occurs since below this altitude (about 55,000 feet) radiation is re-absorbed by the gasses above. The equilibrium temperature for re-radiation of Earth's energy input to space is about -55C. (Depends upon Solar input, ice cover and internal heat). Heat transfer from lower levels to the CO2 horizon is primarily by convection. From the altitude of the CO2 horizon downward, atmospheres absolute temperature rises due to adiabatic compression in proportion to the pressure ratio raised to the 1.35 power (see any thermodynamics text). It is this adiabatic temperature rise which determined the surface temperature. (It is this adiabatic temperature rise effect from CO2 horizon is atop a very thick atmosphere which causes the surface of Venus to be so hot.)
All of the information needed to determine the global warming effects of greenhouse gasses can be obtained by directly measuring the altitude at which the atmosphere becomes opaque in the 10 to 14.5 micron band of electromagnetic radiation. Its a simple observation readily made by satellite. With this data, the Earth's average equilibrium surface temperature is readily determined. The effort does not require a battalion of PhDs,
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