An “impressive” letter from an educated person in The Napa Valley Register.
We know that without greenhouse gases (of which CO2 is the most prevalent) in the atmosphere, the earth would be covered in ice. We know CO2 levels have been increasing with the start of the Industrial Revolution, along with average global temperatures. We know that combustion of fossil fuels releases CO2.
Correct, except for a fatal input error. Water vapour is more than 50X as abundant as CO2, and it absorbs a much broader range of frequencies. His argument then gets absurd because he lacks basic information.
As for consequences, some might be beneficial, as the temperate zone moves toward the poles and new areas open to agriculture. Other projections, including rising sea level, mass dislocations of large populations and famine on an apocalyptic scale, are truly frightening. So what to do?
Marc B. Francis, M.D. / Napa
Please …. This guy lives in a beautiful place with perfect weather surrounded by some of the best wineries in the world. Get on your bike, take a wine tour, go to Six Flags. Enjoy your Sunday, take a chill pill.
Sounds like he has already made that trip to the wineries.
CO2 is the most prevalent
It’s always nice to read these things from people who don’t know what they’re talking about.
Water is no longer a GHG! Just ask the GAV! He wrote a paper on it!
If there was no CO2 in the air H2O would all “Magically” Disappear from the atmosphere and precipitation would stop.
I read the peer reviewed paper that claimed that would happen just recently!
😉 😉 😉
That was an amazingly dense paper. Even at -20C, Water vapour is much more abundant than CO2. None of the reviewers apparently had access to the Internet or a library.
Steven:
I do not think access to internet or library would have helped to reviewers of that article.
Intelligent life is not evident in either the authors or the reviewers. An infusion of brains would only have stopped the publication.
It would have fit right in with the theme of the Onion!
I was under the impression that water vapour was fundamental to AGW.
A small rise in temperature due to an increase in CO2 leads to an increase in water vapour thus raising the temperature(Positive feedback)
“The Water Vapor Feedback”
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2010/11/more-on-feedbacks/
“If there was no CO2 in the air H2O would all “Magically” Disappear from the atmosphere and precipitation would stop.”
That sounds terrible!
Maybe we should keep pumping out that CO2, just to be on the safe side. (:-
Good one Aip!
Let’s steer away from the CO2 doctrine and take a short peak in the past when it was colder than today.
Solar cycles are modulated by our planets, Jupiter, Mercury and our moon.
See: http://www.landscheidt.info
Periods of low solar activity coincide with cooler times, cooler oceans and increased seismic and volcanic activity, see http://www.jupitersdance.com/
Volcanic activity is responsible for an increase of the the so called Dust Veil Index.
A study performed in 1992 of 500 volcanic eruptions shows that the “DVI” during the past century has been much lower compared to the previous centuries.
When our atmosphere has a high DVI number, more sunlight is deflected into space.
http://www.geo.umass.edu/faculty/bradley/bradley1992b.pdf.
As we know from Svensmark, a quiet sun, low solar magnetic activity allows for an increase of intergalactic particles to enter our atmosphere.
These particles build condensation cores causing an increase in cloud lower and medium altitude cloud coverage (cooling).
So do the volcanic ash particles so the joined effects result in a further cooling.
Co2 doesn’t play any significant role at all.
Our sun not only steers ocean cycles but also geological cycles and therefore our climate.
Looking at cow farts with this knowledge at hand looks pretty stupid if you ask me.
Well yes!
Earth shine research showed the same results. Those types of studies need to be conveniently ignored to promote the desired agenda.
Also Gavin at Surrealclimate has been known to make conflicting statements when it suits him. You just need to be able to understand his meaning of the words “IS” and “IT”.
Maybe he just wants to study cow farts. Throwing in the AGW just makes the grant proposal look sexier.