CO2 = LIFE - NOT Climate Control!
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CO2 = LIFE - NOT Climate Control! The following is a summary of a 16-lesson course “Energy and the Planet (Global Temperatures in the 21st Century)” which I presented at the U3A Noosa from January to June 2018. John Turner B.Sc. Dip.Ed.; M. Ed.(Hons); Grad. Dip. Ed. Studies he objective of science is to study the universe in order to discover the basic laws of nature. T Observations and measurements of the natural world produce the data on which the validity of the science can be tested. Scientists are always debating or discussing the interpretation of data, and this is a crucial part of the advancement of scientific knowledge. The validity of a hypothesis can only be decided by the results of experiments. A hypothesis cannot be proved; it can only be disproved. If a hypothesis does not agree with the empirical data from experiments, then it is disproved and must be discarded. The cause of the Ice Ages was the subject of scientific debate in the 19th century. Two hypotheses were suggested to explain the severe changes in climate which occurred during those times. One was based on assumptions about the Earth’s changing astronomical cycles; the other on the assumption that certain gases in the atmosphere (particularly CO2) interfere with the emission of infrared radiation from the Earth’s surface, restricting the Earth’s ability to cool itself. Thus, it was assumed that an increase in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere would therefore cause global warming. The second hypothesis known as the “greenhouse effect” was refuted early in the 20th century. The discovery of the structure of the atom enabled scientists to understand the processes involved when radiation interacts with molecules. The molecules of the so-called “greenhouse gases” resonate with some, but not all frequencies of the infrared spectrum. CO2 resonates at and around only one frequency in the Earth’s infrared emission spectrum, thus it is not possible for CO2 to prevent the emission of infrared radiation from the Earth’s surface to space. When CO2 absorbs photons of infrared radiation it will re-emit them. Some will go directly to space and others will be directed back towards the surface. The radiation from the CO2 in the atmosphere cannot warm the surface. The temperature of the Troposphere decreases with altitude; therefore, the CO2 gas will be at a lower temperature than the surface. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics implies that heat can only travel from a high temperature region to a low temperature region. Since no heat can flow from molecules in the cold atmosphere to the warmer surface, CO2 cannot cause global warming. Page 1 of 8 CO2 = LIFE - NOT Climate Control! isible radiation will pass through glass and water but not through the skin. X-rays will pass through V the skin but not through bones. The reason that X-rays are more penetrating is that they have a higher frequency and hence more energy than the lower frequency visible radiation. Infrared radiation emitted towards the surface by CO2 molecules in the atmosphere does not penetrate the surface of the oceans or any surface water because it is low frequency low energy. Visible radiation from the Sun has higher frequencies than infrared radiation and will penetrate the oceans to depths of 200m in clear conditions. The absorption of energy from the Sun is the main reason for the heating in the upper levels of the oceans. Infrared radiation from CO2 cannot heat the oceans because it does not have enough energy to penetrate the surface of water. here was no mention of, or reference to any “global warming” properties of CO2 gas molecules in T university science courses from the 1920’s to the 1970’s. CO2 was described as a colourless, odourless naturally-occurring gas vital for the maintenance of life on Earth. It is the most important link in the carbon cycle enabling carbon to pass from animals to plants. It is a low-energy molecule which plants need as food for their photosynthesis. All living things are composed of complex giant molecules formed by the ability of carbon atoms to join together in chains and rings. When the Earth was formed there was no life, but its atmosphere contained CO2 from active volcanoes. The source of all the carbon atoms in living things is CO2. CO2 is a trace gas and its concentration in the atmosphere is so small it is not stated as a percentage of the total amount of all atmospheric gases, rather it is expressed as parts per million parts of air (ppm). Its current concentration from all sources is just over 400 ppm. This means that a sample of 2,500 molecules of air contains only one molecule of CO2. The amount of CO2 attributed to human activities, particularly through the combustion of fossil fuels, is only a small fraction of the total CO2. A sample of 77,000 molecules of air would contain only one molecule of anthropogenic CO2. If all the nations of the world were to cease burning fossil fuels this would remove only one CO2 molecule from every 77,000 molecules of air. The temperature of a gas or mixture of gases is related to the average speed of all its molecules. The removal of one molecule of a gas from every 77,000 molecules would have no effect on the average speed of the remaining molecules and hence no effect on the temperature of the gas. The removal of anthropogenic CO2 from the atmosphere would not affect the global temperature. Page 2 of 8 CO2 = LIFE - NOT Climate Control! he atmosphere consists of a mixture of gases whose molecules are in constant motion. Enormous T amounts of energy are required to keep all these molecules moving. They obtain this energy when they come into contact with the warmer surface. The surface is warmed when it absorbs energy from the Sun. The surface warms the atmosphere; infrared radiation from CO2 in the atmosphere does not warm the surface. The science is very clear: changes in the amount of the trace gas CO2 in the atmosphere have no effect on global temperature. Human emissions of CO2 cannot cause climate change. This is why the greenhouse gas hypothesis was rejected many years ago. Enter Politics! he current mass hysteria promoted daily by the mass media about the need to reduce emissions of T CO2 to decarbonize society has no basis in science. It is the result of a belief promoted by the IPCC that human emissions of CO2 will cause dangerous global warming. The IPCC is a political organization of the UN set up in the guise of a scientific body. There is no experimental data which show that CO2 from any source, let alone from human emissions, causes dangerous global warming. The IPCC was designed to put political leaders and bureaucrats rather than scientists in control of the science. It is a membership organization of governments not scientists. The governments fund it, staff it, and select the scientists who get to participate. They then revise and rewrite the reports after the scientists have finished their work, even if those revisions contradict what scientists said! It may seem incredible, but the mass hysteria about the supposed danger posed by increasing human emissions of CO2 resulted from the efforts of one man, Maurice Strong, a former UN bureaucrat. Strong was a committed socialist and an active member of the “Club of Rome” who realised that the amount of CO2 produced by a nation is related to the extent of its degree of industrialization and hence is a measure of its economic wealth. Strong believed that the developed nations were using up the world’s finite resources at the expense of the poorer nations. If a way could be found to demonize CO2, then a governing body would be needed to regulate it. This was Strong’s plan for the transformation of the UN into a world government. The resurrection of the discarded “greenhouse gas” hypothesis provided an unscientific rationale for the flawed science of the IPCC’s operations. It is difficult to identify if any scientists were involved in that decision but from that moment on the reputation of science as an open-minded, intellectually rigorous pursuit to discover the basic laws of nature was severely compromised! The science of climate change was politicised. Validity of climate science was to be tested by consensus not by experiment. (Typical “pollution” propaganda – CO2 gas is invisible!) The politicization of climate science by the UN has led to demonstrations against the fossil fuel industries, particularly coal. The media have accepted as fact that the emission of CO2 gas from the burning of fossil fuels will cause dangerous global warming. The resulting UN Paris Climate Agreement expects nations to outline their plans to reduce emissions of CO2 based on a false claim. Page 3 of 8 CO2 = LIFE - NOT Climate Control! odern economies are becoming increasingly reliant on electricity. The dilemma for the UN is that M their approved no-CO2 technologies for generating electricity, solar and wind, have two major deficiencies. They are very weak sources of energy and they are intermittent because their outputs are dependent on the weather. These renewable forms of energy are very expensive to build because large areas of land are needed for the large numbers of solar panels or wind turbine towers. They only provide reliable electricity 24/7 if they are backed up by conventional coal or gas electrical generating plants. Solar and/or wind plants can be backed-up by battery storage, but this adds to the costs.