Definitions

The Hidden Flaw in Greenhouse Theory
by Alan Siddons; February 25, 2010

The Hidden Flaw in Greenhouse Theory.

Insulated by an outer crust, the surface of the earth acquires nearly all of its heat from the sun. The only exit for this heat to take is through a door marked “Radiation”. And therein lies a tale.

Recently, I chanced upon an “Atmospheric Science Educator Guide” published by ɴᴀsᴀ.

(https://web.archive.org/web/20090402112002/http://astroventure.arc.nasa.gov/teachers/pdf/AV-Atmoslesson-3.pdf).

Aimed at students in grades 5 through 8, it helps teachers explain how so-called ‘greenhouse gases’ warm our planet Earth.

(https://web.archive.org/web/20090320111534/http://astroventure.arc.nasa.gov/teachers/atmos_train.html).

These guides are interesting on a number of levels, so I recommend that you look them over. But what caught my eye was this:

• “Question: Do all of the gases in our atmosphere absorb heat?”

• “Answer: (Allow students to discuss their ideas. Don’t provide the answer at this time)”. ~ (Lesson Three; Page 79).

Indeed, that’s a good one to think over yourself. Almost all of what we’re breathing is nitrogen and oxygen – do these gases absorb heat? Lakes and rocks absorb heat, after all, and thereby reach a higher temperature. So can nitrogen and oxygen do the same?

Well, I won’t keep you hanging. After allowing students to discuss it, the teacher is instructed to give them the final verdict:

• “Answer: No. Only some gases have the unique property of being able to absorb heat”. ~ (Lesson Three; Page 88).

These are the infrared-absorbing ‘greenhouse gases’, of course, substances like carbon dioxide and water vapour, and not nitrogen and oxygen.

Now, is something wrong here? Most definitely, for ɴᴀsᴀ has a finger on the scale.  Let’s review a few basics that ɴᴀsᴀ should have outlined. (...). Heat and light are thus strongly related, but they aren’t the same. For instance, heat can’t actually be radiated; only the light that heat brings about can. (...). Observe how ɴᴀsᴀ describes this relationship, however:

• “Question: What is the relationship between light and heat?”

• “Answer: Things that are hot sometimes give off light. Things under a light source sometimes heat up”. ~ (Lesson Three; Page 88).

Utterly false. Heated masses always emit light (infrared). Always. (...). And while it’s true that some substances may be transparent to infrared light, it doesn’t follow that they can’t be heated or, if heated, might not emit infrared. Yet ɴᴀsᴀ’s misleading formulation implies precisely that.

There are three ways for heat (better to say thermal energy) to move from one zone to another: by conduction, convection, and radiation. (...). Heat is transferred and absorbed in several ways, then, and no substance is immune to being heated, which means that all gases absorb heat – contrary to what ɴᴀsᴀ tells children.

So how does ɴᴀsᴀ go wrong? By consistently confusing light and heat, as you see in the illustration below, where infrared light is depicted as heat. Elsewhere, ɴᴀsᴀ expresses heat transfer in terms that pertain to radiant transfer alone:

• “The Earth first absorbs the visible radiation from the Sun, which is then converted to heat, and this heat radiates out to the atmosphere, where the greenhouse gases then absorb some of the heat”. ~ (Lesson Three; Page 84).

Nowhere in its teacher’s guide are conductive and convective heat transfer even mentioned. By selective context and vagueness, then, ɴᴀsᴀ paints an impression that only light-absorbing substances can be heated. Thus, since nitrogen and oxygen don’t respond to infrared, ɴᴀsᴀ feels justified to say that “only some gases have the unique property of being able to absorb heat”.

Astonishing.

But a mix-up like this raises a deeper question: Why does ɴᴀsᴀ go wrong? Because it has a flimsy yet lucrative theory to foist on the taxpaying public, that’s why. As the space agency explains in the “Main Lesson Concept”, the core idea of greenhouse theory is that downward radiation from greenhouse gases raises the earth’s surface temperature higher than solar heating can.

• “Greenhouse gases absorb heat that radiates from Earth’s surface and release some of it back towards the Earth, increasing the surface temperature”. ~ (Lesson Three; Page 77).

⁽*⁾Editorial Comment: take note this line of argument is a rhetorical confutation of ɴᴀsᴀ’s counterfactual ”only some gases have the unique property of being able to absorb heat” assertion as there is no such atmospheric “greenhouse effect” (let alone “greenhouse gases”) in the physical atmosphere.

If (note ‘if’) atmospheric gases did indeed back-radiate infrared, such as to increase the surface temperature beyond solar heating, the noonday heat could arguably exceed the moon’s midday 120° Celsius.

• Any matter that is heated above absolute zero generates electromagnetic energy. The intensity of the emission and the distribution of frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum depend upon the temperature of the emitting matter”. ~ (Chapter3; Page 20).

(https://web.archive.org/web/20000815224816/http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/radioastronomy/Chapter3.pdf).

Accordingly, any heated gas emits infrared. There’s nothing unique about carbon dioxide. Otherwise, substances like nitrogen and oxygen would truly be miracles of physics: Heat ’em as much as you wish, but they’d never radiate in response. (...). An idea has been drummed into our heads for decades: that roughly 1% of the atmosphere’s content is responsible for shifting the earth’s surface temperature from inimical to benign. This conjecture has mistakenly focused on specifically light-absorbing gases, however, ignoring heat-absorbing gases altogether.

Any heated atmospheric gas radiates infrared energy back toward the earth, meaning that the dreadful power we’ve attributed to light-absorbing gases up to now has been wildly exaggerated and must be radically adjusted – indeed, pared down perhaps a hundred times. Because all gases radiate the heat they acquire, trace-gas heating theory is an untenable concept, a long-held illusion we’d be wise to abandon.

Greenhouse Earth and Icehouse Earth.

The climate history of this terraqueous globe has fluctuated between two primary states: Greenhouse Earth and Icehouse Earth. Both climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with glacial and interglacial periods, which occur as alternate phases within an Icehouse Earth period and tend to last less than a million years. There are five known Icehouse Earth periods over the past three billion years. An Icehouse Earth is a period during which ice sheets are present in both poles simultaneously. A Greenhouse Earth is a period during which no continental glaciers exist anywhere on the planet. Additionally, atmospheric and oceanic levels of carbon dioxide are high, and sea surface temperatures (SSTs) range from 28°C in the tropics to 0°C in the polar regions. It is important to recognise how high carbon dioxide levels are interpreted as an indicator of the planet’s climate, rather than as an independent driver. Planet Earth has been in a greenhouse state for about 85% of its history. Permanent ice is actually a rare phenomenon and occurs only in coincidence with the Icehouse Earth effect, which has affected about 15% of climate history.

The Late Cenozoic Ice Age began 34 million years ago, its latest phase being the Quaternary glaciation, in progress since 2.58 million years ago. Within ice ages, there exist periods of more severe glacial conditions and more temperate conditions, referred to as glacial periods and interglacial periods, respectively. Planet Earth is currently in such an interglacial period (which is expected to continue for 100,000 years). After the Last Glacial Maximum some 21,000 years ago – when all of Great Britain bar its southernmost permafrost portion lay buried and denuded of all life under at least a kilometre-thick ice-sheet – the latest deglaciation began, which lasted until approximately 11,700 years back. The current interglacial is known as the Holocene epoch – where a clement climate is comparatively constant and stable, and is marked by only high-altitude alpine glaciers at most latitudes with larger ice sheet and sea ice at the poles – and will likely phase into another period such as the Eemian Interglacial, which occurred between 130,000 and 115,000 years ago, during which evidence of forest in North Cape, Norway (which is now tundra), well above the Arctic Circle, and hippopotamus in the Rhine and Thames Rivers can be observed. The planet is expected to continue to transition between glacial and interglacial periods until the cessation of the Quaternary Ice Age and will then enter another Greenhouse Earth state.

Climate Modelling.

Climate scientists have tried to compare the past transitions between Icehouse Earth and Greenhouse Earth, and vice versa, to understand what type of climate state the planet will have next. Predicted changes in orbital forcing suggest that the next glacial period would begin at least 50,000 years from now but ongoing anthropogenic global warming(!sic!) means the next climate state will be a Greenhouse Earth period.