It’s funny. Someone on this thread suggested the folks at Salon can’t pass a basic science test. Indeed.
I often ask climate zealots, “How can CO2 be a greenhouse gas if it is heavier than air?”
I get the ‘perplexed dog’ look from them.
I then patiently explain, “The reason why water becomes clouds is because the molecular weight of water is lower than the molecular weight of O2. 18 atomic units to 32.”
The light starts to go on.
“. . . That’s why clouds form. . . “
Then I’m quiet for a second.
“How much do you suppose Nitrogen Dioxide weighs?”
That wasn’t fair, right? Asking a question like that.
“Nitrogen weighs 14 and O2 weighs 32, so that’s 46. You think that the reason they build really tall smokestacks is because without them all those pollutants would fall down around the places where people live?”
Now they are lost - completely.
“Nox, Sox, they all weigh more than air. If they weigh more than air, how can the make it up to the upper atmosphere so that they can hold all that warmth close to the Earth?”
Then you get anger. They can’t deal. The science is too simple, and they say it in the 8th grade or Freshman science class. “Oh, THAT’s why we took science!”
Clouds make the Earth warmer. That’s it.
“Before we start taking away freedoms and spending trillions of dollars we don’t have, why can’t we just figure out whether the heat of the sun, and the way that heat changes from time to time, is having a bigger effect on how hot the Earth is first?”
“For instance, we can measure the temperature of Mars, and even though it doesn’t have much of an atmosphere, it might track pretty closely with changes in the average global temperature of the Earth. Measuring that temp on an ongoing basis isn’t even expensive, either. Can we do that first.”
Then they look at you like, “Haven’t they already done that.”
Truth is, they have, but they haven’t monitored and documented it on an ongoing basis. The early evidence is that when Mars is hot, so is the Earth. When its cold, so is the Earth. The Sun could be the culprit.
“Wouldn’t it be cheaper to run that lead down first?”
At this point, they’re leaving or changing the subject.
I don’t believe or disbelieve in ‘climate change’. I’m just a guy that was paying attention in eighth grade science. As soon as we can construct an experiment that shows that heavier-than-air molecules like NOX, SOX, or COX can defy gravity, levitate to the upper atmosphere, and then stay there long enough to hold in all that heat, I’ll look at the irrefutability and weight of all that and accept AGW as science.
This, after all, is what science is all about.
You are simplifying it a bit, because the bouyancy of a molecule doesn’t exactly corelate with it’s direct atomic weight, it also depends on it’s atomic electrical properties.
Which is a function of Boyle’s law to an extent.
If a complex molecule takes up a greater “volume” per unit of atomic weight than air then it will rise even if it is comprised of a sum total higher atomic weight than air.
But for simple molecules not comprising complex things like benzene rings, you are indeed correct!
We sometimes forget the radiation output of the Sun is of many types, many of which can directly affect the gases in our atmosphere. This is why during the famous Maunder Minimum of 1645 to 1715, the lack of sunspots resulted in much lower radiation output from the Sun, which caused essentially a mini Ice Age to occur, including regular freezing of the Thames and Seine Rivers in Europe. We do know that the Sun's radiation output has changed a bit in the last 100 years, and noted that the temperature on Mars and the upper atmosphere of our gas giant planets have been steadily warming at least since the 1950's. That multi-planetary warming--which also affects the Earth--is why it appears Earth's climate is warming--but in a natural fashion.