[ RadSafe ] Climate Change and physics

[Bradshaw, Keith kzb]

To bring a bit of science to the debate, radiation absorption and shielding calculations are probably second nature to many on this list.  On the Wiki page linked here, you will see atmospheric electromagnetic radiation aborption characteristics plotted, and it is all conceptually similar to radiation shielding:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas

Having seen this page, I cannot see that a physicist can really deny this effect.  If CO2 is not raising the temperature above what it would have been without it,  as in this theory, the onus is on you to prove why not.  For it NOT to raise the temperature would seem to be against the laws of physics.

In my view, the difficulty comes with the feedback mechanisms, are we in a positive or negative feedback loop, and that is where water vapour comes in.  People who say water vapour is more important than CO2 are not taking into account feedback.  Water vapour has a negative feedback mechanism that tends to control temperature, i.e more water vapour = higher temperature, but then higher water vapour also = more cloud cover = lower temperature.  I think it is still uncertain whether water vapour actually increases or decreases temperature.

This negative feedback self-controlling mechanism is absent for CO2 and the other greenhouse gases, except if you allow that they do cause heating, then the water vapour mechanism comes into play.

Pesonal views only

Keith Bradshaw


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