BenevolentM -> RE: An Attempt to Understand the Science Behind Global Warming (9/30/2013 6:44:08 PM)
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: LookieNoNookie quote:
ORIGINAL: BenevolentM My goal is to present the material in an unbiased fashion. If I appear biased do try to look past it. As a first approximation I thought of the following question: If the earth's atmosphere were compressed to the same density as liquid water how deep would it be? Changes in the amount of carbon dioxide that there is in the atmosphere is measured in parts per million. If it were one meter thick, one part per million would correspond to a layer that is one micron thick. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_wrap "Common plastic wrap is roughly 0.5 mils, or 12.5 µm, thick" In other words the layer would be less than 1/12th the thickness of common plastic wrap. It is not my intention to make a point per se. Understanding how the blanket works is involved because it isn't plastic wrap. The atmosophere has no surfaces so the notions of reflectivity and such don't make complete sense. Thinking about how thick it is helps. I suspect many here are not especially well educated on the topic yet have a great deal to say on it. They defer to the experts, but that is an appeal to authority which is fallacious. Technically speaking, at the present time there are no experts on the topic. There are people who earn a living at it, but they are like experts in astrology. They know something about the motions of the planets, but how it relates to the weather remains unclear. But clearly there is science behind it. What makes a one micron layer or one that is a hundred microns thick matter so much? If the layers had surfaces, it would make a difference because it would be like wrapping the planet in a hundred blanks, but the atmosphere has no surfaces and the carbon dioxide is diffuse. Let's face it no one has explained any of this stuff to us. So it is up to us to figure it out for ourselves. Unfortunately, many feel that how they feel about it emotionally is sufficient. Well, some one just did. In black and white (and a few colors). Hope you read the entire post: http://www.skepticalscience.com/don-easterbrook-heartland-distortion-of-reality.html Fascinating stuff! Forceful stuff. The article didn't give me what I wanted, but the web site looks like a good resource in general. I found something on the site that looks like it would be an excellent topic for its own thread. You should see it up shortly.
|
|
|
|