“EARTH’S CLIMATE IS CHAOTIC, NOT STATIC”
August 13, 2020
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
For those ready to roll their eyes with “…There he goes again…” please bear with me.
The “plans” of the presumptive Democrat nominee for president, if he were to stumble into that esteemed office come November (heaven forbid – please) are out there now. Biden has co-opted some of the worst of Bernie’s Socialist “economic” ideas and seems to be full-on with the Green New Deal put forth by AOC — that great thinker and science wizard whose prior position as a bartender gave her deep insights and an ability to expound profound “verities” regarding planetary science.
Unfortunately, the “news” treats nonsensical climate “science” opinions such as those of AOC and now Sleepy Joe seriously. And worse, too many among us nod their heads in affirmation. How can truth-tellers garner any affirmative news coverage as to the nonsense of climate-change hysteria?
The other night as I tossed and turned, I realized that we obviously aren’t explaining climate truth as effectively as we could. The idea formed that a place to start would be to stop writing and saying that the essential, life-giving, naturally-occurring trace gas in our atmosphere, known also as carbon dioxide, comprises a bit less than 4 parts in 10,000 of the oceans of billions of tons of the gasses that surround and protect and sustain planet Earth.
Instead, let’s put the facts this way: 99.96 percent of our atmosphere is NOT carbon dioxide. Second, we should demand that the Green New Dealers and the misguided “scientists” on whom they base their “facts” to explain just how this tiny amount of life-sustaining and naturally-occurring carbon dioxide performs its “magic heating” on the other 99.96 parts of the atmosphere. And, no, magic doesn’t count. Those buying into the Green New Deal pretend to have the “science” on their side.
However, purified air in a glass lab vessel is not the same as the actual atmosphere that surrounds our planet. The air that sustains us is nearly 80 percent nitrogen, 16 percent oxygen, and a variety of other gases make up the final four percent. Among that final four percent are the so-called greenhouse gases that regulate temperatures on our planet. The most prevalent – and absolutely essential — “greenhouse” gas is water vapor, which varies from place to place and from hour to hour. Water vapor absorbs (removes) heat and releases heat, depending on where it is formed and altitude. It is transient and more prevalent in some areas than others. There is very little of it at high altitudes or at the poles, as cold air cannot “hold” water vapor but can (and does) turn it into clouds.
In high school chemistry we learned how elements and chemical compounds can be affected by precipitates and catalysts. They act differently but cause other compounds, elements, and gasses to react and modify their properties. So, let us ask the true believers to explain — does carbon dioxide act as a precipitate or a catalyst? And how does it perform as such – explain the process. Or, if that is too tough, maybe they can explain how such a tiny amount of anything can overcome the enormous, weighty, and recurring forces that keep our lovely planet livable. We are talking about the mighty oceans that cover more than two-thirds of the earth’s surface and which are in constant motion, absorbing and releasing millions of tons of carbon dioxide in a cyclical manner and which transport cold and warm climate-affecting waters from the equator to the poles and back. Or maybe they could explain why variances in solar output (measured routinely over varying wavelengths) play no role in climate.
Finally, our side should emphasize what should be obvious to all, that our planet does not behave like an experiment in a laboratory where conditions can be controlled. Nope, the earth’s weather/climate system is chaotic, not static. And tremendous forces with differing physical properties work on it hour by hour, day by day, month by month, season to season and year to year. The great differences in temperatures between the equator and poles, the tilt of the earth as it orbits the sun, the prevailing ocean currents that transfer heat from the equator to the poles and circle the continents, cloud cover and its variances, solar winds and flares, and the enormous oceans of air in constant motion affected by water vapor, sunlight, the earth’s rotation and topography… Then the “believers” should explain why those mighty, natural forces mean nothing – but, somehow, only the four-tenths of one percent of life-sustaining gas in our atmosphere — called carbon dioxide — means everything affecting our climate?
Old, Can’t Help Himself, Had to Write This,
Frank