Self-Contradictory Greenhouse Warming Theory

Written by Bob Webster on June 9, 2013. Posted in Current News

A rational look at an irrational theory

By Bob Webster (Editor, Publisher, WEBCommentary)

Despite the contrary evidence of more than a decade of no global warming trend, warmists continue to claim Earth’s surface temperature will rise in response to minuscule increases in a minor atmospheric gas (carbon dioxide, CO₂) that has the ability to absorb and re-radiate certain frequencies of outgoing infrared radiation (IR).

This claim gets major traction with the “green” movement who constantly hear assertions that carbon dioxide is an atmospheric “pollutant” with the capacity to destroy the planet. Ironically, the reality is just the opposite with carbon-based fuels being the most “green” of any energy source known to man! Why? Because the by-product of using carbon-based fuels is carbon dioxide, an essential ingredient for plant growth!

Yet even warmists admit that carbon dioxide alone is insufficient to create the catastrophic climate change they claim. Instead, they claim that slight atmospheric warming from additional atmospheric carbon dioxide will increase atmospheric water vapor which, in turn, will lead to catastrophic warming.

Conveniently, these beliefs ignore an important law of physics that prohibits a cooler body (the atmosphere) from increasing the temperature of a warmer body (Earth’s surface).

Essentially, the warmist theory is:

Warming climate results from a base climate to which is added an increase in warmth due to the impact of additional atmospheric carbon dioxide.

The problem with this theory is it cannot be sustained in the real world. This can be seen more easily if we translate this statement into symbols from which a formulation can be expressed.

Symbolically:

A₁ = warming climate,

A₀ = base climate, and,

∆A₀ = warming increase from impact of additional CO₂.

Which can be expressed by the formulation:

A₁ = A₀ + ∆A₀ > A₀; since ∆A₀ > 0

Since this is an ongoing process, in general at any instant in time:

A_i+1 = A_i + ∆A_i > A_i

This describes a process that produces a constantly increasing temperature.

Note that the incremental increase in warming (∆Ai) must also increase (i.e., ∆Ai+1 > ∆Ai) because, according to warmist theory, warming is dependent on (1) Earth’s surface temperature (that determines outgoing IR) and (2) the amount of atmospheric CO2, both of which are claimed to be increasing.

This formulation describes the impact of claimed “back radiation” from the atmosphere that results in an increase in Earth’s surface temperature (warming climate). 

But since this is an ongoing process, what happens over time?

Since each of the components in the expression is increasing, the incremental increase in temperature must increase:

A_i is increasing,

A_i+1 is increasing, and,

∆A_i is increasing.

Consequently, over time:

∑ A_i+1  = ∑ (Ai + ∆Ai) => _∞; as i  => _∞

and this process must lead to “runaway” warming (a continuous increase in surface temperature).

So why hasn’t the process run away?

It hasn’t on Venus, with a near-surface atmosphere that is 97{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} CO2.

While warmists might claim that climate warming has “run away” on Venus such claims ignore the fact that Venus’ atmospheric temperature is not increasing. Why? What stopped the warming if, indeed, the process is a “runaway” process?

Neither has there been any runaway warming on Mars, despite a near-surface atmosphere of 95{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} CO₂! In fact, it’s quite chilly on Mars.

Warmists might claim that Mars receives less warming from the Sun. But the warmist greenhouse effect is not dependent on the rate of solar warming, it is only dependent on the ability of an atmosphere containing “greenhouse gases” to “trap heat”, thereby magnifying it’s impact by a magical “back radiation” that, defying physical law, over time will establish the perpetual warming process described above.

Closer to home, despite continuously rising atmospheric CO₂, Earth’s global temperature hasn’t experienced any uptrend for well more than a decade!

According to warmist theory, Earth’s temperature should have risen significantly over the past two decades. It has not.

In fact, there is no meaningful correlation between atmospheric CO₂and Earth’s temperature over the past 600 million years:

So which should be viewed with skepticism? Shaky warmist claims that defy physical law, or known climate history?

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