.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Cosmic Variance

Friday, February 17, 2006

Global Warming is Pseudo Science!

The widely accepted Global Warming Theory, is a pseudo science and must be abandoned. Here I explain what it is and why it is totally wrong.

The Global Warming Theory (GWT) believes that human activity considerably increased the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. As a result it leads to considerable warming up of the arth's surface. As a consequence it could leads to the melting of polar ice and cause raising sea level, and other catastrophies that would eventually render the planet earth un-inhabitable to human. Some GWT doomers even believe that we have passed a point of no return. i.e., the global warming cause by human is already so high it releases the methane gas frozen in the polar ice, and methane, being a more effective green house gas, causes more global warming, and it leads to to more green house gas being release and so it leads to run off global warming that destroys all life on earth.

Complete Nonsense! First we have to realize that although human activity do contribute to raising CO2 level in the atmosphere, the amount of atmospheric CO2 is so low that it's green house effect is totally insignificant. Today's atmospheric CO2 is only 377 ppm (part per million), it is maybe 30% higher than pre-industrialization level. But the earth has experienced atmospheric CO2 density many orders of magnitude higher.

One has to realize that human can not make a single gram of carbon atoms. All the CO2 we release into the atmosphere, come from burning of fossil fuels like coal and petroleum. And fossil fuel came from buried ancient plantations. Ancient plantations obtained their carbon by absorbing CO2 out of the atmosphere. So here you go, by burning fossil fuel, you are just releasing ancient atmospheric CO2, right back into the atmosphere. And fossil fuel is a limited resource, at a time when you have burned the last ounce of fossil fuel, you still have not released enough CO2 to cause the atmospheric CO2 level go high enough to the level it once was, when the ancient plantation were growing to form the fossil fuels.

And we are pretty close to running out of fossil fuels. Because of that, we are facing an un-precedent energy crisis. But that's another story I will talk about the other day. For now keep in mind that even if we burn all of our fossil fuels, we are still far away from have an atmospheric CO2 level that is high enough to be of any concern.

Now go back to the GWT theory. The main pillar of GWT is that green house gases, which are gases containing three or more atoms per molecule, allow the short wave light of the solar radiation to go through to heat up the earth's surface, while at the same time, these molecules absorb the long wavelength heat radiation radiated from the surface of the earth, and re-radiate them back to the earth surface. So the heat is trapped on the surface of the earth, causing the surface temperature to be warmer than otherwise.

Sounds reasonable. Isn't it? GWT theorists also frequently cites the planet Venus as a good example of the global warming effect. However one thing they negnect to point out is that the atmospheric CO2 thickness on the Venus is 3x10^5 thicker than the earth's. And it warm up the Venus by less than 200 degrees. The earth has a CO2 layer 3x10^5 times thinner. So 200 degree divided by 3x10^5 times = 0.00007 degrees. The global warming caused by CO2 is virtually nothing on earth, if the data on Venus can tell us something.

How much is 377 ppm of the earth's atmospheric CO2? If the CO2 condense into a liquid layer on the surface of the earth, it's no more than 3 milimeter thick. Such a thin layer can not absorb any radiation or trap any heat in any significant way.

The most fatal fraud in the GWT theory, is that they have forgotten some basic common sense physics that every one should learn from elementary school. Radiation is NOT the only way heat can be dissipated! There is radiation, convection, and evaporation. Any one has any doubt need to look at the cold snap in Russia a few weeks ago. They have such a cold temperature NOT because all of a sudden they have a hole of green house gases on top of their sky, and that all their heat gets radiated away. They are cold because of air convection. Cold air from the polar area flow to the ground, and caused the extreme cold.

Air convection and water evaporation are much more important contributing factors than radiation, in how the ground dissipate the heat. And it happens every day, not just during a cold day. We often have experience that once the sun sets, the temperature drops pretty quickly. Temperatures can't drop that fast by radiation along, if it were not for the heat loss caused by the air circulation.

The most important forms of surface heat disipation is by water evaporation, which absorbs large amount of heat, and also by hot air raising in the sky during day time and cooler air sink down during the nights. In both cases, the water vapor and hot air raise to high above the ground. When they come back down, in the form of rain fall and cold air. They are cold and further absorbed surface heat.

Clearly, in between water vapor and hot air raising and cold rain and air falling, a large amount of heat was brought up, and release high in the sky. But yet, the atmosphere tens of kilometers above the ground is EXTREMELY COLD. How could it happen. Where does the heat go? Clearly the heat can not be dissipated by air convection: The air is becoming ever more thin the higher you go so the heat can't be brought further up. The ground is hotter so the heat really can't be released back to the ground. For all the heat that's being continuously brought up in the high air, there is only one place for them to go: Radiation into the deep space.

Here, the so called green house gas actually played the opposite role. The high air is at sub-zero temperature so it could not radiate in short wavelengths like visible light. It can only radiate in long wavelengths. But the only gases that can radiate in long wavelengths are also the gases that absorb such wavelengths, i.e., green house gases.

So, the matter of the fact is the green house gases not only does NOT trap heat on the ground. It actually HELPS to keep the ground cool by actively radiate away the large amount of heat brought up to the high air by ground water evaporation and air circulation. The high air is a heat sink that sucks heat away from the ground. And the green house gases keep that heat sink cold so it can continue to suck heat away from the ground. Green house gases cause global cooling, not global warming!!!