Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 03/08/2009 7:35:01 AM PDT by Thickman
By John Fleck Copyright © 2009 Albuquerque Journal Journal Staff Writer Since he was a kid, Harrison "Jack" Schmitt — geologist, moon-walking astronaut, former U.S. senator — has been fascinated by weather and climate. When he was a child in Silver City, he and his father studied rainfall data from southern New Mexico. When he launched to the moon in 1972, he took the latest Earth weather charts with him and spent downtime during the journey looking back and trying his hand at weather forecasts.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
Fleck constantly reports that "most" scientists agree that climate is being changed by man. His AGW advocacy never cites sources, though in this piece he uses a survey by American Geophysical Union's Eos to support that claim.
Please post your comments with FACTS that help obliterate this "reporter's" assumptions. With your help, a good response can be sent to the paper.
Climate Research NewsClick on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
Ping me if you find one I've missed.
Harrison was one of the astronauts that were there for their scientific knowledge and not their status as a pilot. I have met him several times and he will tell you it’s a shame they stopped going to the moon when they did because they were just starting the real science.
I am not saying he’s an expert on environmental change, but he’s pretty darn bright and well informed, so I take hiw opinion very seriously.
That said, I’m not registering with their site to either read the article or post comments. I’m sick of sites that expect you to register just to read the content.
The means by which anthropogenic global warming is SUPPOSED to take place, apparently is through excessive production of carbon dioxide, as a by-product of the burning of “fossil fuels”, i.e., natural gas, petroleum products and coal. This is assuming, of course, that the carbon in these commonly used fuels was sequestered eons ago, and to release it now is to somehow upset the delicate balance of the web of life.
Burning of fuel does kind of shift the balance of life, in a way. Green plants grow much more vigorously, producing more carbohydrates and free oxygen (a highly corrosive and reactive gas, and the cause of more destruction of human enterprises than any other single factor), while binding up the carbon dioxide as a useful by-product, as sugar, starch, cellulose, and a number of other complex compounds that also include the elements sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorus, sodium, calcium and potassium, to name a few. Without the presence of carbon dioxide, green growing plants would wither and die. Without green growing plants to balance off our own life process, humanity (and all animal life), would die, falling down in asphyxiation and massive starvation. Some anaerobic life forms may survive, but almost all of them are microbial in nature, and cannot be expected to substitute for humanity.
So it is our DUTY, our OBLIGATION, to generate as much atmospheric carbon dioxide as we are able, as much as five times or more of the current levels now in the mixture of the gases that make up the air we breathe, if that were even possible.
But try as we might, it is as useless to try to reach this goal, as it would be to eliminate carbon dioxide altogether as an atmospheric gas. It simply cannot be done except on a small scale in a closed system.
The carbon cap and trade scheme being offered is but a retread of the Clinton BTU tax that was being considered about fifteen years ago, and is bad for the same reason - it is a hidden tax on consumers, artifically elevating the price, for no discernible effect other than to make the price of energy prohibitively high, and thus ration its use to only those who are willing to pay the higher price.
But carbon dioxide is NOT the culprit in any form of “global warming”. It is revealed as only a TRAILING indicator, occurring only AFTER the oceans have warmed sufficiently so the carbon dioxide is released, much like the carbonation from bottled soda water is released as the carbonated water is left in the open to warm. Keeping the carbonated water as cold as possible (with ice floating in the water) slows this release of carbon dioxide to a much lower rate.
Carbon dioxide is supposed to absorb solar radiation at a much greater degree than say, nitrogen, the most abundant element in the atmosphere by volume, some 78%, or oxygen, the second most abundant component, some 20%. The fourth most abundant element, argon, makes up something less than one percent. The third most abundant part of our atmosphere? Water vapor, a very highly variable component, ranging from about 1% to as much as 4% at any given time. In fifth place, and lagging FAR behind water vapor, is carbon dioxide, some 0.04% (or less).
Water vapor has the same profile of absorption of solar energy as carbon dioxide. So you see, water vapor is some 25 to 100 times as important as a “greenhouse gas” as carbon dioxide. Water vapor is also able to both absorb and give up its “latent heat” over a much more practical range than carbon dioxide, established as becoming a liquid below 100º C (212ºF), and a solid below 0º C (32ºF). Carbon dioxide has a peculiarity in that it goes from gaseous form directly to solid form at -78.5° C (-109.3°F), and does not have the moderating effect of remaining in a liquid state for a wide range as does water vapor. In fact, carbon dioxide will only exist as a liquid below a certain temperature and under great pressure (critical temperature, 31.1°C, and critical pressure, 72.9 atm), at which point it becomes “supercritical”, a strange state in which it is essentially a gas, but behaves as a liquid, and makes an excellent solvent for a number of compounds. This is how they decaffeinate coffee beans, for instance, or extract certain chemical compounds used in perfumes. This state of carbon dioxide has been used to “flush” hydrocarbons from solid rock, assisting in the reclamation of some “dry” petroleum and natural gas wells.
And that, dear children, is today’s lecture on common everyday chemistry that touches ALL our lives.
Ten-point quiz first thing tomorrow.
I don't need some Algore to tell me about Global Warming not being cyclical.
I KNEW it! Earth’s atmosphere is polluted with OXYGEN!
Huh? What? He IS a rocket scientist?????
Mark
Sums it up nicely... socialists, ...”those who believe societal interests should take precedence over individual interests” ...want to believe this lie and use this as an excuse to leverage their control on everything.
Societal “interests” vs. individual rights. Socialism vs. a free market republic.
Thanks for posting this.
It is worse than that! The earth is polluted with a deadly chemical called dihydrogenmonoxide. The earth is so polluted that it even rains this chemical! This insidious chemical exists everywhere, often as a liquid or as a solid. It also is everywhere as a vapor so there is no escape from it.
That’s all water under the bridge...
I appreciate the response, but the main point to refute with this reporter is the so-called “consensus”. It represents the sum total of the AGW argument.
Good article; thanks for the pings!
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