Kerry: World is 'On Track To Warm At Least 4 Degrees' in 20-40 Years

The Weekly Standard ^ | September 23, 2014 | Jeryl Bier

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

"Mother Nature ... is screaming at us about" climate change, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told the crowd at the opening event of Climate Week NYC 2014. While Kerry used a more measured tone than that which he attributed to Mother Nature, the apocalyptic nature of his warnings were in keeping with her purported sentiment. Using projections that appear hyperbolic, even compared to the worst case scenarios presented in the latest United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, Kerry said that "we’re on track to warm at at least 4 degrees over the course of the next 20, 30, 40 years, and by the century, even more." Kerry linked the increase to more severe effects of "greenhouse gas levels" than scientists originally figured:

[<1/1,000,000th%]

3rd coldest year since records were kept.

[norwaypinesavage]

After reading it again, Kerry’s explanation of global warming is so good, I’ll start a new thread on it.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Somehow I get the impression that he doesn’t have any friggin’ ideer what he talking about.

In fact saying that CO2 “works exactly like a greenhouse” is dead, dead wrong. It does not even act “like a blanket”. So much ignorance is such a small a small space is astonishing, probably the greatest achievement in the junior senator for (Teddy’s) life whole career.

Let’s get our facts straight:

1.) Sunlight warms the surface.

2.) The surface warms the air directly by convection, contact between the surface and the air.

3.) The surface radiates energy out to space by “black body” radiation, mostly at infrared. Some of this infrared energy is absorbed (and converted to heat) by “greenhouse” gases.

A greenhouse acts by preventing air (wind) from carrying off heat by convection. The air that the surface has warmed stays there and does not mix with colder air thousands of feet in the up, via turbulence.

A blanket prevents the flow of heat across its interface. Glass (greenhouses) and gases (even “greenhouse” gases) don’t do that. Blankets are poor thermal conductors. It’s the difference between cooking a marshmallow with a wooden stick or an aluminium rod. Wood and blankets are thermal insulators, aluminum and glass are conductors.

A so-called greenhouse gas absorbs *some tiny fraction* of the surface infrared (see #3 above) and converts *some fraction* of that to heat, thereby warming the air it is mixed into. Mostly it does not interact with most infrared wavelengths.