Just a little off color humor.
Posted on 12/21/2008 9:05:03 PM PST by neverdem
Ron Ace's idea to cool the planet by evaporating water could provoke controversy because it collides head-on with a concern of environmental scientists: that water vapor is a potent greenhouse gas.
A recent Texas A&M University study, based on satellite data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, warned that if water vapor levels in the atmosphere continue to rise, it "could guarantee" an increase of several degrees Celsius in the Earth's temperatures over the next century.
These scientists warned of potential "positive feedback," in which water vapor traps heat near the surface, the warmer temperatures cause increasing ocean surface water to evaporate, producing even more water vapor, further heightening the trapping effect and beginning the cycle anew.
Kenneth Caldeira, a climate scientist for the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University whose computer simulation of Ace's invention suggests it would significantly cool the planet, said that scientists are still trying to sort out the complicated role of water vapor.
Among its mixed effects:
-It absorbs latent heat near the earth's surface and transports it to higher altitudes, for a cooling effect.
-When it condenses at higher altitudes, it releases the latent heat, which then can radiate into space, producing more cooling.
-It's a greenhouse gas, trapping heat and causing warming.
-It can form low clouds that reflect solar energy, a cooling effect.
-It can form more high clouds, which block some sunlight but mostly prevent the release of infrared radiation from below, another warming effect.
Robert Park, a retired University of Maryland physics professor, said scientists are right to worry that water vapor and other greenhouse gases could lead to thermal runaway - a cycle where two or more factors feed off another to propel temperatures higher - but that no one has proved that it's occurring because the atmosphere is so complex.
"This is what makes climate such a horrendously difficult thing to calculate ... by far the most difficult calculation that man has ever attempted," Park said.
Ace hopes that his global cooling invention will help settle the matter.
ON THE WEB
The Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology: http://dge.stanford.edu/DGE/CIWDGE/CIWDGE.HTML
What we need is an inter-dimensional matter bridge to siphon off excess heat from the Earth into a parallel universe.
Tinfoil!
If we really believed Global Warming was true and a problem, we could spew millions of flakes of really small tinfoil into orbit, deflecting sun rays.
Stupid idea (since GW is a fraud), but I’ve heard of scientists who believe it would work.
Shut down Congress for the next four years. Gas gone, problem solved.
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Send treats to the troops...
Great because you did it!
www.AnySoldier.com
These people are insane.
It is not rational to take them seriously.
Save the Planet!
Just have all the tinfoil hats put the shiny side out and reflect all that sunlight (as well as have alien mind probes deflected).
Shiny-side-out/shiny-side-in tin-foil hat AGW conflict ping.
Problem is, water is made by cars with catalytic converters. They take the exhaust gases and convert some of the biproducts into water. Check out exhaust pipes; you'll see water dripping out every so often. We've been making water vapor for years. When I was a kid, I was told that there's the same amount of water on earth now that there was when it was made. Not that way now.
Cool photo!
Pun intented.
I think they should run with the “Giant Mirrors” idea myself. Putting gas suppressing diapers on cows is another great idea, as well as powering cars with cow “emissions”.
But they had better hurry, MANBEARPIG says that the ice caps will be completely gone in just 5 years. I suggest they panic and begin voluntary euthanasia among those who believe this insanity. That would be the very BEST solution to this problem. Starting with ALGORE.
Whoops! There go the alternative-energy hydrogen fueled autos!
However with an EPA proposed rule to tax cow and pig farts taxing water vapor can't be too far off.
The byproducts of combustion are CO2 and H2O. Combusting gasoline creates CO2 and H20.
There is a simple way of testing this theory. We could flood a large portion of the earth’s surface with water (say 3/4’s of it), and then allow the sunlight to evaporate this water. If the result is catastrophic heating, the theory is proven correct. Oh, wait...........
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