For those curious about a little physics and math:
CO2 only absorbs infrared light aka heat in three very narrow bands of wavelengths (think “colors”) of heat. See CO2 Absorption Spectrum; There is no Valid Mechanism for CO2 Creating Global Warming” (“Carbon dioxide absorbs infrared radiation (IR) in three narrow bands of wavelengths, which are 2.7, 4.3 and 15 micrometers (µM).”) This article also has some other good insights.
In those narrow bands, CO2 is almost completely opaque. Outside of those narrow bands, CO2 is almost completely transparent.
CO2 is only about 0.04% of our atmosphere. Why so low? Well CO2 is what plants, plankton, etc. need to “breathe.” They suck up all available CO2 and return O2. This is called the carbon cycle and is the basis for all of us carbon based life forms (i.e., pretty much everything alive on Earth).
Even at only 0.04% of our atmosphere, CO2 absorbs almost all infrared light in those bands within at most 10km. Think about it like this: You have 10,000 sheets of very thin semi-opaque paper. Each sheet absorbs 0.04% of light passing through it. That means those 10,000 sheets will absorb almost all of the light passing through them.
Note: the math is a little complicated. The first sheet absorbs 0.04% of the light leaving 99.96%. The next sheet absorbs 0.04% of the remaining 99.96% leaving about 99.92%. Next sheet absorbs about 99.96% of that, leaving 99.88% left. After about 10,000 sheets, only about 1.83% of the light is left. Basically, all the light has been absorbed (and likely converted into vibrational as opposed to radiant heat).
Consider those sheets to be about 1 meter thick. That is a gross overestimation -- it's probably more like 10 cm thick for CO2 but I am erring on the side of a ridiculously conservative estimate. That means your 10,000 sheets are a combined 10km thick. The atmosphere is about 10,000km thick. Hence, all infrared light that can be absorbed is absorbed in the first 1/1,000 (0.1%) or so of the atmosphere.
So what happens if you double the amount of CO2? Then all infrared light (heat) that can be absorbed is instead absorbed in the first 1/500 (0.2%) of the atmosphere. Net change in heat absorbed: ABSOLUTELY NONE. Net benefit: More CO2 for plants equals more plants and more O2 for us.
This is REALLY simplified but think Feepers will get the point.
Short version: manmade aka CO2 caused climate change is not just a hoax, it is not even a very good hoax for those who know basic physics. Unfortunately, the level of basic physics education in this nation is essentially nil except for real engineers, physicists, and scientists. Thanks NEA and the modern state of the “education” aka leftist indoctrination system.
PS To those who want to elaborate on the above or correct me, feel free. Please be kind and respectful. This is after all a work in progress. Just trying to make some of the physics/math understandable. I will adopt any re-writes or valid corrections if you give me permission to do so.
Very nicely done. More and more of these analogies are needed. People don’t get complex systems and are too willing to listen to the witch doctor’s explanation of natural phenomena.
My favorite example is Mars where 93% pf the atmosphere is CO2. There is no evidence of a green house effect at all. Mars even has periods of frozen CO2. The atmosphere there is thin but we have a helicopter flying about so it isn’t that thin.
If you absorb 100% of a particular thermal radiation, while the amount of that radiation keeps being produced at a fairly constant rate, the temperature will quickly escalate and keep rising.
For example, if you were to cover yourself in bed with a perfectly insulated blanket, you would soon be roasting and the temperature would keep going up until you’re dead and stop producing heat.
What’s missing from your explanation is that after CO2 absorbs the heat, it also re-emits it in various ways, so the heat doesn’t just stay there, eventually it escapes into space. If it didn’t we’d roasted and long gone.
As you add more blankets (CO2}, ie, more resistance to heat flowing out, to keep the same amount of heat going out the temperature has to increase. The question is, how much?
For there to be no temperature increase you would need to come up with an energy shedding mechanism from CO2 that doesn’t involve molecular motion, which is what heat is. A possibility is some radiation that is transparent to all the gases in the atmosphere.
So the bottom line question is, exactly how does CO2 shed the thermal energy it absorbs?