1. What caused the various ice ages (including the “little ice age” and prolonged cool periods)? Per my book, ice ages are driven by orbital variability, aided by a CO2 feedback: 2/pic.twitter.com/bA69zlDRss
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Here are answers to questions posed by the Judge Alsup re: climate science (http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/case-documents/2018/20180306_docket-317-cv-06011_order.pdf …). Turns out answers to those questions are actually pretty well known. 1/
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When they melted, by how much did sea level rise? Answer: 300 ft. Causes of the little ice age is a subject of debate. It could have been a reduction in solar energy (“Maunder Minimum”) or cooling from volcanic eruptions. 3/
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2. What is the molecular difference by which CO2 absorbs infrared radiation but oxygen and nitrogen do not? Answer: in our atmosphere, most oxygen and nitrogen are in the form of homonuclear diatomic molecules (molecules made up of 2 identical atoms). 4/
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Quantum mechanical selection rules tell us infrared transitions in such molecules are “forbidden”. CO2 is different & does have strong IR transitions. Thus, O2 & N2 don’t absorb IR radiation, while CO2 does. That’s why CO2 is a GHG but O2 and N2 aren’t. AmIrite
@EthonRaptor? 5/Show this thread -
Aside: according to the Bible, homonuclear diatomics go against God’s teachings. We should only allow heteronuclear molecules. 5a/
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3. What is the mechanism by which infrared radiation trapped by CO2 in the atmosphere is turned into heat and finds its way back to sea level? See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PAbm1u1IVg … 6/
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4. Does CO2 in the atmosphere reflect any sunlight back into space such that the reflected sunlight never penetrates the atmosphere in the first place? Not enough to be important. 7/
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5. Apart from CO2, what happens to the collective heat from tail pipe exhausts, engine radiators, and all other heat from combustion of fossil fuels? How, if at all, does this collective heat contribute to warming of the atmosphere? 8/
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A: It contributes, just not much. Total energy consumed by humans is less than 20 TW, which corresponds to 0.04 W/m^2. Net heating from GHGs (known as radiative forcing) is 2.3 W/m2, so it’s 60 times bigger. 9/
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6. … why hasn’t plant life turned the higher levels of CO2 back into oxygen? A: It has, a bit. Increased plant activity has removed probably a quarter of the CO2 that’s been added to the atmosphere. 10/
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6. ... Given the increase in human population on Earth (four billion), is human respiration a contributing factor to the buildup of CO2? A: No. From Chap. 5 of my textbook: 11/pic.twitter.com/o7t2CMIAMk
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7. What are the main sources of CO2 that account for the incremental buildup of CO2 in the atmosphere? A: Seriously?!? Fossil fuels. That’s easy. From Chap. 5 of my textbook: 12/pic.twitter.com/n0EdykTaTp
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8. What are the main sources of heat that account for the incremental rise in temperature on Earth? A: Most of the heating is from CO2, but other factors contribute: 13/pic.twitter.com/kI8MePRvJ5
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Wow, that was pretty easy. I'm guessing lawyers working on this will nevertheless charge $500/hour to do it. 14/14
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End of conversation
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