Climate alarmists often look at atmospheric CO2 levels like a window that gets whitewashed.
In their view, a single thin whitewash will impede but not block the light coming through the window (heat radiating into space)
Another coat over that will impede even more. Adding additional coats will cause light to be blocked (reflected) completely.
It is a simplistic view, but that is how many of them view it. There is no evidence that CO2 levels function in the atmosphere in that manner.
[[n their view, a single thin whitewash will impede but not block the light]]
I know that’s how they present their arguments, but it’s a false argument, because there is so little CO2, that it wouldn’t be akin to whitewashing a whole window- it would only be akin to whitewashing say a 1 mm by 1 mm spot of an 8 foot by 8 foot window (Note, I don’t know the exact correlation of measurements- just winging it here- too dumb to figure out a correct correlation of dimensions), and claiming that that small amount is causing ‘massive catastrophic cooling of the 12x12 room the windows resides in
Where CO2 by man is just 0.00136% of the atmosphere, how thin must that blanket layer be? A molecule thin? Less even? the whitewash paint layer on a windows would actually be much thicker than the layer of CO2- also, when the layer gets saturated with IR molecules, it can’t absorb any more, and so the following IR molecules that are escaping from earth’s surface, will slip right past the already saturated molecules
Here’s the real kicker- what little IR molecules do get absorbed, and radiated out, get radiated out in all directions, not just back towards earth- most gets radiated outwards, away from earth- only a tiny fraction makes it’s way back towards earth in the form of heat-
And here’s another kicker- when that small tiny fraction of heat makes it’s way back to earth, it’s cooling on the way, and is being overwhelmed by the now cooler lower climate conditions (remember, the heat rose towards the atmosphere- so the lower climate region was cooling off)
Remember my Olympic pool scenario? Well it applies here too- the hotter radiated heat gets overwhelmed by the massive amount of cooler temps, and the hotter molecules almost instantly reach stasis- ie, they become the same as the surrounding air temp- Why? Because there simply is nowhere near enough hotter air to overcome the cooler mass-
These things are never explained to us because they don’t support the alarmism
I don’t think most anyone argues that CO2 functions in that manner. 50% or more of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is made up of water vapor. A slight increase in one greenhouse gas, CO2 for example, would cause a slight increase in the Earth’s average temperature. This slight increase would cause an increase in water vapor in the atmosphere due to evaporation which would lead to an increase in temp which causes more evaporation and on and on. Conversely, lowering CO2 levels would cause a slight decrease in temp which would lower evaporation which would cause a decrease in water vapor which leads to more lowering of temperature and so on and so on.