Greenhouse Theory Disproved a Century Ago

Town Hall ^ | 02/03/09 | reasonmclucus

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Not sure I can agree with this person’s assertion. What say you?

[Gondring]

But by saying with a straight face that carbon dioxide doesn’t absorb infrared radiation you make us all look like idiots.

Please go to your nearest college campus and measure the CO2 absorption spectra. There is no conspiracy about that. Although I’m becoming more convinced that there is a conspiracy of idiocy at FR.

It seems to be a pride thing...like "some of us at FR are PROUD to be wrong, so we'll shout it and look REALLY foolish." Reality means nothing, as long as many people pile on with the same tired, misquoted pseudofacts.

Remember when it was "knee-jerk liberals"?

[jwalsh07]

This is silly, the absorption spectra of CO2 is well studied and known.

Because of that spectra any doubling of CO2 can only increase temperature by a couple of degrees C. The function is logrithmic and there is absolutely no science showing any tipping point or linear relationship between CO2 ppm and temperature increase.

In fact CO2 has risen in a linear fashion for the past decade with no accompanying increase in temperature. So the question is when does AGW become falsified. 10 years, 20, 50, 100?

Never is the right answer I suspect.

[Gondring]

Not sure I can agree with this person’s assertion. What say you?

Your instincts are good.

The author totally misses the point of how the greenhouse effect works, though he is correct that the term "greenhouse effect" is misleading--greenhouses work by limiting convective loss, while the atmospheric greenhouse effect works by limiting radiative loss.

An easy detail to point out is the mouse and chain-link fence analogy. Well, that would be appropriate if the atmosphere were only one molecule thick. But even with a small concentration of carbon dioxide molecules, a thickness of atmosphere gives more opportunity for a given ray of light to interact with a carbon dioxide molecule.

[Gondring]

In fact CO2 has risen in a linear fashion for the past decade with no accompanying increase in temperature.

If solar variability is a factor, then we might see a decrease even in an AGW scenario.