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January 23, 2008
Science Lesson
Here's the abstract to an interesting report entitled "Falsification of the Atmospheric CO2 Greenhouse Effects Within the Frame of Physics" (PDF), which came out of the Institut für Mathematische Physik at Germany's Technische Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina last summer:
The atmospheric greenhouse effect, an idea that authors trace back to the traditional works of Fourier 1824, Tyndall 1861 and Arrhenius 1896 and is still supported in global climatology essentially describes a fictitious mechanism in which a planetary atmosphere acts as a heat pump driven by an environment that is radiatively interacting with but radiatively equilibrated to the atmospheric system. According to the second law of thermodynamics such a planetary machine can never exist. Nevertheless, in almost all texts of global climatology and in a widespread secondary literature it is taken for granted that such mechanism is real and stands on a firm scientific foundation. In this paper the popular conjecture is analyzed and the underlying physical principles are clarified. By showing that (a) there are no common physical laws between the warming phenomenon in glass houses and the fictitious atmospheric greenhouse effects, (b) there are no calculations to determine an average surface temperature of a planet, (c) the frequently mentioned difference of 33 °C is a meaningless number calculated wrongly, (d) the formulas of cavity radiation are used inappropriately, (e) the assumption of a radiative balance is unphysical, (f) thermal conductivity and friction must not be set to zero, the atmospheric greenhouse conjecture is falsified.
Someone get this to Al Gore quickly, before he makes a fool of himself. Whoops, too late.
Via Icecap, on a tip from Brooklyn Red Leg.
Posted by Van Helsing at January 23, 2008 12:13 PM
Comments
That link, ICECAP, is a great website. Thanks, Van - and you too Brooklyn Red Leg. Much appreciated.
Posted by: Kevin at January 23, 2008 5:20 PM
Well...
Not well stated, but I think understandable -
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Yeah, I am still waiting for Al Gore to show me the methods for (and profits generated by) shipping SUVs and air conditioners to Mars and other planets/moons that seem to have warmed.
But, well, without atmosphere there is no climate; so a greenhouse then is not very effective anyway. Postulate putting up a greenhouse on Mercury: the temperature difference inside would be barely measurable, and at that only of the ground. To get a difference between the glass and the ground, the greenhouse would have to be sealed and contain gases/liquids (atmosphere).
So saying the greenhouse effect does not affect climate is fairly meaningless in the abstract.
Yes, I realize that is not what the paper is talking about - or at least, I hope not, the abstract is not sufficient.
Posted by: teqjack at January 23, 2008 6:55 PM
