Greenhouse Gas Theory Explained

It's All About Feedbacks

We Exhale CO2; Plants Inhale It

This is too good to not let stand on its own.

The (incomplete, due to 350 word reply limitation on the site) comment was in response to a Feb. 25th article at The American Thinker blog (americanthinker.com) by Alan Siddons titled “The Hidden Flaw in Greenhouse Gas Theory.” The comment thread is worth spending a little time with, as well. Read the whole thing here.

Most do not understand the man made global warming theory.

The Sun’s rays warm the earth, this heat is then released to the atmosphere, greenhouse gases do not (trap this heat), they just slow the rate in which the heat is dissipated back into space.

CO2 does absorb some heat, but CO2 is a trace gas, it is less than 4/10,000ths of the atmosphere. 95% of greenhouse gases are water vapor, they are a much more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2.

CO2s ability to absorb heat is logarithmic, meaning the more CO2 there is, the less heat it can absorb. The first 20ppm of CO2 absorbs more heat than the next 500ppm and so forth.

If you double or triple CO2 in the atmosphere, CO2 by itself, can not raise temperatures more than about 1 deg C, no matter how much there is. There is consensus on this.

The AGW theory says that rising CO2 from man, causes more warming of the atmosphere (which it does), and this will cause positive feedbacks, more humidity in the air, fewer clouds, or more high level cirrus clouds (cirrus clouds are the type of cloud that slow release of heat from the atmosphere). these positive feedbacks will cause higher temperatures which eventually leads to dangerous global warming from a vicious cycle. So CO2 is just the trigger. It is humidity that is said to cause the dangerous warming.

Observation shows that these positive feedbacks do not exist. When temperatures warm, there is more humidity, but low level clouds form, it rains, and temperatures cool. Thus, clouds are negative feedbacks, not positive.

The global warming theory says that the atmosphere is unstable, but it is actually the opposite.

So it is all about the feedbacks, this is the missing part of the debate, that people on both sides do not really understand.

There were three ice ages with more CO2 than today.

CO2 doesnt do much to warm the atmosphere, look at the difference between deserts and the tropics. CO2 is about the same at both locations, but the desert is colder at night and warmer in the day than … (350 word limit)

via American Thinker – Comments.