Tyson is not a genius he's a sellout and an idiot. I have been tweeting him once a week asking him to find the Hot Spot. But with over a million followers he will never read it.
No smoking hot spot 1. The greenhouse signature is missing. We have been looking and measuring for years, and cannot find it.
Each possible cause of global warming has a different pattern of where in the planet the warming occurs first and the most. The signature of an increased greenhouse effect is a hot spot about 10km up in the atmosphere over the tropics. We have been measuring the atmosphere for decades using radiosondes: weather balloons with thermometers that radio back the temperature as the balloon ascends through the atmosphere. They show no hot spot. Whatsoever.
If there is no hot spot then an increased greenhouse effect is not the cause of global warming. So we know for sure that carbon emissions are not a significant cause of the global warming. If we had found the greenhouse signature then I would be an alarmist again.
He is also full of crap about the heat absorbing properties of CO2. That has been thoroughly debunked and it has been shown beyond doubt that most radiant heat is lost back into space. He must have told 15 baldfaced lies on last week's show.
[ He is also full of crap about the heat absorbing properties of CO2. That has been thoroughly debunked and it has been shown beyond doubt that most radiant heat is lost back into space. He must have told 15 baldfaced lies on last week's show. ] All molecules absorb kinetic heat energy and then re-release it... It is like these morons think that CO2 absorbs heat at every angle to the molecule and then releases it back straight back downward.... if this were the case you could build an awesomely efficient solar collection device made out of a clear glass column filled with CO2 and with a heat collector at the bottom of it... No to mention the fact water vapor which is variable in percent of the atmosphere: per wiki The percentage water vapor in surface air varies from .01% at -42℃ (-44℉)[23] to 4.24% when the dew point is 30℃ (86℉). So with water vapour percentage swinging all over the place even if it is 1/10th the greenhouse gas of CO2 should prove to be catastrophic according to AGW modeling people... And they ignored the "city effect", you have these cities built with large expanses of concrete and asphalt absorbing heat during the day and releasing it at night in giant columns of rising warm air over cities and urban areas, that has GOT to affect the Jet Stream FAR more than a fractional increase in CO2...