Atmospheric carbon dioxide and global warming
A favorite canard of climate change denialist trolls is to trivialize the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; how could something that is only 0.04% of the atmosphere drive global warming? Well, Google is your friend:
“About 99 percent of the atmosphere is made of oxygen and nitrogen, which cannot absorb the infrared radiation the Earth emits. Of the remaining 1 percent, the main molecules that can absorb infrared radiation are CO2 and water vapor, because their atoms are able to vibrate in just the right way to absorb the energy that the Earth gives off. After these gases absorb the energy, they emit half of it back to Earth and half of it into space, trapping some of the heat within the atmosphere. This trapping of heat is what we call the greenhouse effect. Because of the greenhouse effect created by these trace gases, the average temperature of the Earth is around 15˚C, or 59˚F, which allows for life to exist.
“CO2 makes up only about 0.04% of the atmosphere, and water vapor can vary from 0 to 4%. But while water vapor is the dominant greenhouse gas in our atmosphere, it has “windows” that allow some of the infrared energy to escape without being absorbed. In addition, water vapor is concentrated lower in the atmosphere, whereas CO2 mixes well all the way to about 50 kilometers up. The higher the greenhouse gas, the more effective it is at trapping heat from the Earth’s surface.”
So (1) carbon dioxide *is* a greenhouse gas, while the dominant gases in the atmosphere aren’t, and (2) it’s not the percent of the atmosphere that is carbon dioxide, but the total amount and how it’s distributed.
Ask questions, but don’t forget to listen for answers.
how atmospheric carbon dioxide drives global warming
Studies have shown increased intake of CO2 correlates with decreased cognitive function
I oft-times wonder, when you have people like then-freshman Senator Lindsey Graham suggesting dosing the water supply with lithium to “calm everybody down, if that’s a plan
It’s not vibrations, but transitions between discrete vibrational energy states that absorb or emit radiation ignored by the discrete transitions of water vapor. It should be kept in mind that CO2 concentrations a century ago were already sufficient to absorb all of the relevant radiation from the earth’s surface. But increased concentrations cause the final emissions toward space to originate at higher (colder) altitudes. Because of the thermodynamic coupling between ambient temperature and radiative emission, the emission rate into space is lower (until increased surface temperature causes total up and down emissions and absorptions to rise)
Rick:
Now that is an answer. Thanks for the technical and historical background. Rick, the same to you. If you ever get the urge, we would entertain a post by you too.
And infrared (heat) radiation covers a range of wavelengths. CO2 and water vapor (and the other greenhouse gasses) do not absorb all the same wavelengths. Much like those pots that come with sliding vents. Closed they boil over, open they don’t. Adding CO2 slides the vents just a little more closed.
Jane:
Nice comment. If you ever feel up to writing, let Joel and I know.
Not qualified by far to write here, but thanks for the complement.
I can’t stand it. Science journalism is not science. But it’s all in a good cause.
Spring, Summer, October, Winter happen.
@skeptic,
Springs are warmer. Summers are warmer. Octobers are warmer. Winters are warmer. Seasons aren’t climate. Learn the difference. Meanwhile, stop trolling AB.
“May 2024 was the twelfth straight month of record-warm temperatures for the planet, European scientists announced Wednesday.
“That’s the second-longest such streak on record, according to data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
“It is shocking but not surprising that we have reached this 12-month streak,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, in a statement. “While this sequence of record-breaking months will eventually be interrupted, the overall signature of climate change remains and there is no sign in sight of a change in such a trend.”
“The new milestone is even more worrisome than the one reached in January, which marked 2023 as the hottest year on record. That meant the calendar year was the hottest overall, with many – but not all – months setting records. Now every month for a year straight has been the hottest ever recorded.
“Unfortunately, Earth being hot is nothing new: Our planet has seen over 550 consecutive months with temperatures above the 20th-century average.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2024/06/05/global-heat-records-set-12-months-in-a-row-fueled-by-climate-change/73907161007/
You furious “climate change” enthusiasts, think about your toothbrush, or the spandex socks you put on every morning, or the roads you drive on, or your Iphone and where they came from (Oil) — or what it was like living in Northeast America 13000 years ago, under 50 feet of ice …
@skeptic,
LOL! You furious climate change denialists just tickle me. No evidence or rebuttals, just misdirection. Stop trolling AB. You’re only embarrassing yourself.
oh my goodness. it must have been really tough for you living thirten thousand years ago under all that ice.
wonder what it’s going to be like a few years from now when there is no ice at all, anywhere, hint: it won’t be like a winter vacation in Florida.
Because the latent heat of fusion of water is 80 cal/gr, and because the ice caps on land are 10000 feet thick, they won’t disappear for a couple of hundred years. With two large polar heat sinks, and with equatorial temperatures 10 degrees hotter than now, the weather will be very entertaining, if you own a bunker.
can’t upvote you on the comment. Good one though.
Bill
can you recognize sarcasm when you see it? a couple of hundred years…is less than thirteen thousand/ I am sure if George Washington had seen what America was going to be in a couple of hundred years (give or take) he wouldn’t have bothered.
meanwhile a couple of hundred years has already started…noticeably without anyone knowing about the latent heat of fusion, or the quantum mechanics of vibrations vs transitions between discrete vibrational energy states that absorb or emit radiation ignored by the discrete transitions of water vapor.