Posted on 06/10/2007 8:59:55 AM PDT by canuck_conservative
In the matter of "greenhouse gases," carbon dioxide is, shall we say, the gas du jour. We should surely be up to date and knowledgeable on CO2, which is said to be forming a kind of blanket which prevents the escape of all this global heat to outer space.
So can I table the question: How does the carbon dioxide get up there?
Carbon dioxide is one-and-a-half times heavier than air. I doubt even Al Gore would try to challenge that. So why doesn't it just lie around at ground level like autumn mist, and, of course, choke us all to death?
Frederick Gall, Ottawa.
He's a self promoting tycoon, only his followers are morons.
I like your tagline! : - )
Interesting how all these stories and debates on “global warming” never make any mention whatsoever about the percent composition of our atmosphere and always mention Carbon Dioxide amounts in absolute tons (rather than percentages).
Here’s a little 3rd grade Science lesson for Algore and his loyal minnions of biased “scientists” on the composition of air:
Nitrogen = 78.084 %
Oxygen = 20.9476 %
Argon = 0.934 %
Carbon Dioxide = 0.0314 %
Neon = 0.001818 %
Methane = 0.0002 %
Helium = 0.000524 %
Krypton = 0.000114 %
Hydrogen = 0.00005 %
Xenon = 0.0000087 %
http://www.physlink.com/reference/AirComposition.cfm
Nature puts our roughly 90% of the CO2 on the earth while all of human activity contributes approximately 10%. Now given that for each unit of air only 0.000314 of it is C02 (an odorless and colorless gas) and only 10% of that is caused by humans, that means that for 1 unit of air only 0.0000314 is the CO2 caused by humans. Even if all of humanity stops breathing and we all cease all activities and we contribute no additional CO2 it will have a completely negligible effect on the global temperature. Don’t forget the ten thousand year climate cycles we do not control, the warming trend that caused Greenland to be green (before us horrible American started driving and flying), and the little Ice Age that caused the death and starvation of millions in Europe.
Multiple serious scientific studies has shown that more than 95% of the actual warming is caused by the SUN and the Cloud Cover that traps heat as it radiates from the surface of the planet. How on earth can we control the Sun and the Clouds?
Has Algore bothered with these absolutely key and critical issues in his biased propaganda piece that even a 3rd grade can easily debunk? Not a chance! He would rather put out his idiotic Sky is Falling movie based on junk science.
KEWL!!
I've never been in a glider.
I bet it's a peaceful and quiet bast to experience.
How do they measure a global CO2 concentration anyway? Anybody know?
Mars and some of the moons orbiting the gas giants are also experiencing warming trends. I wonder if Internet Al could explain to us humans what exactly is the human component of those warming trends.
Al Gore still has his head swimming from the time when he was nominated as presidential candidate and lost his claim to fame but won’t give up his attachment to fame. He could reclaim his fame better if he would seek first the truth.
Yes, by the monitoring of hard earned cash flow and the change in the total amount of cash available to transfer.
It took 20 posts for someone to state the correct answer, Brownian motion.
As an aside, CO_2 is often in greater concentration near the surface, but that is because soil and sea water slowly emit CO_2 and they also are sinks for CO_2 varying with season and temperature.
You take a heap’o’measurements, make a heap’o’guesses and jump to a heap’o’conclusions.
If there is that much argon, we need to tax welders and torch companies!
In other words, nature contributes approximately 100% of CO2.
Since when were humans found to be outside of the realm of nature?
Argon credits is the ONLY way to cut down on the amount of welded steel in our lives!
Atomic masses:
O 16
N 14
C 12
H 1
Molecular masses:
diatomic oxygen: 32
diatomic nitrogen: 28
Approx average atomic mass of air (roughly 1/5 oxygen, 4/5 nitrogen): 28.8
carbon dioxide: 44
water: 16
So here is the explanation: CONVECTION. The air in the lowest layer of the atmosphere (the troposphere) is constantly turning over, worldwide. In spite of the higher density of carbon dioxide, its molecules are very, very small, and so do not fall independently of the air around them with a rate fast enough to amount to anything. A mass of carbon dioxide by itself will sink (as from sublimated dry ice), but carbon dioxide molecules cannot easily unmix from the molecules of other constituents of the air, because individually they are very small, and small things settle slowly.
Look now at water: its mass is similarly much smaller than the average molecular mass of air. Humid air masses are less dense than dry one (other things being equal), but water molecules do not rise easily by themselves. They are up there in the upper reaches of the atmosphere, as we can easily determine by sampling, or simply by looking at all the clouds. Nonetheless, water is a commoner constituent of the atmosphere near the surface than aloft. There are several reasons for this, which I will leave for later, but note that the stratosphere (the next layer above the troposphere) is very, very dry. Thge highest humidities tend to be near the Earth’s surface. “Higher is drier.”
The constant convection of the troposphere leaves the mixture of tropospheric air very uniform, except for water content. That is why the composition of the troposphere (and other parts of the atmosphere) is usually cited as dry composition. The water content varies so widely, because of being locally added and removed from the air, that we consider it separately, and call it “humidity.”
The conclusion: carbon dioxide is well mixed in the troposphere, and that is the huge bulk of the Earth’s atmosphere, with its upper limit (the tropause) at from 8 to 18 km elevation.
So, this issue has no direct bearing on the global warming issue.
Anybody can say anything on the internet, but that doesn't mean it's true.
It's been a long time since I studied this stuff but my recollection is that the density of a gas at a given temperature is proportional to its molecular weight. Nitrogen gas which is the primary component of the lower atmosphere has a molecular weight of 28. Oxygen which makes up almost all of the remainder is 32. Carbon Dioxide has a molecular weight of 44. So I think the letter writer is correct.
ML/NJ
Damn sun is going to be the death of us yet unless Algore can find the funding to regulate it's output!
Someone has cited Brownian Motion as the mechanism for mixing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Ingenious answer, but I think not. Brownian Motion is at a very, very small scale.
For admospheric mixing, CONVECTION beats Brownian Motion, probably by a factor of millions.
They say there aren’t any dumb questions, but sometimes I doubt that.
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