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Friday, August 30, 2019

Global Warming and the Bible

Anthropogenic Global Warming (in capital letters) is a doomsday prophecy. As such, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy ‘to the degree’ we choose to ignore its warnings. Just as the Israelites of the Old Testament chose to ignore their prophets by charting a course independent of God and suffered the predicted fate, as humanity chooses to continue abusing God’s Creation, then we will all pay the price together. Sinners and saints alike will all share a common fate which could have been avoided.

Supplemental reading:
The Bible on Climate Change-
http://luthscitech.org/the-bible-on-climate-change-and-its-deniers/

Pantheist Who Advises the Pope
https://stream.org/scientific-pantheist-who-advises-pope-francis/

A song, “Que Sera Sera”, lends a bit of lightness to the situation:
“Whatever will be, will be...”
https://youtu.be/3FKA-3uRdQY

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Amazon Soil: Poorest In The World

The logging companies rip off the big bucks, and then the ranchers and big biz farmers clear, burn and deplete the soil which is already the poorest and most infertile in the world. When one cuts down the forest, it is irretrievably lost. The humus layer is all too soon washed out. Hence, the evil of destroying the Amazon rainforest is exponentially increased.
Because of corruption that circumvents environmental safeguards, buying ‘any’ imported beef, timber, soybeans or palm oil that is from Brazil is irresponsible.
https://fightingthebiocrisis.wordpress.com/2013/12/18/how-can-the-amazon-support-so-much-life-is-it-due-to-soil-fertility/

The farms created by destroying the Amazon can only grow crops for about 10-15 years before they turn into equatorial desert and new land needs to be cleared. But it’s all about short-term profits.
https://eblnews.com/video/how-one-rich-american-helping-burn-amazon-profit-738258

“What If We Cleared the Amazon?” 
(8 minutes):
‪‪https://youtu.be/hb3b-A6QAc8‬‬

“Amazon Tropical Forest ‘Dieback’ As Hydrological Cycle Disrupted”
https://samslair.blogspot.com/2019/08/amazon-tropical-forest-dieback-as.html?m=1
Search:
“Amazon Forest Dieback Scenario”

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Amazon Tropical Forest ‘Dieback’ As Hydrological Cycle Disrupted

“The rain in the rainforest is not an accident of geography or meteorology. The towering trees of the Amazon play important parts in the orchestra of the region’s water system.

The trees take in rainwater through their roots, move it up into the canopy, and release it into the air, a process called evapotranspiration. The trees also release volatile organic compounds that react to form tiny particles. These particles serve as nucleation points to form clouds and eventually lead to more rainfall. 

Multiply this pattern by the hundreds of billions of trees in the rainforest and you get a powerful mechanism for recycling water and generating rainfall that keeps even the thirstiest of trees quaffed in hot tropical weather.

This rainfall pattern helps sustain agriculture throughout Brazil and top up reservoirs that hydrate major cities, feeding and quenching the thirst of millions.
But these trees are rapidly disappearing, along with the shrubs, grasses, fungi, and soil bacteria that work alongside them to circulate moisture. The rate of deforestation in the Amazon has picked up again after years of decline, with roughly a soccer field-size area lost every minute.

Once the rainforest loses a certain amount of area, this orchestra will fall out of tune. There will not be enough remaining tropical woodlands to continually evaporate and condense moisture through the forest. Without this cycling of rainfall, downwind vegetation will not get enough water. That flora in turn will weaken and move less moisture through the air, resulting in less rainfall for the forested areas even further downwind. These parched trees will become more vulnerable to pests and fire. The mighty stalwarts of the Amazon will shrivel up, and a wave of death will start at the periphery and propagate throughout as much of it degrades from a dense tropical forest into a sparse savanna. The cycle will continue without our input. And there will be little we can do to stop it.
This is a scenario known as a forest dieback.”

Note: The soil in the Amazon tropical rainforest is the poorest and most infertile in the world. If one cuts down the forest, it is irretrievably lost. The humus layer is quickly washed out. Hence, the destruction of the Amazon will have been exponentially evil.

What If We Cleared the Amazon? 
(8 minutes):
https://youtu.be/hb3b-A6QAc8

Note: Lost forests are usually replaced by agriculture, which produces its own emissions. Add in these impacts and the real contribution of deforestation to global climate warming since 1850 is as much as 40 percent. At that rate, tropical deforestation could add 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7°Fahrenheit) to global temperatures by 2100 – even if we shut down fossil fuel emissions tomorrow.

Amazon Soil: Poorest In The World
https://samslair.blogspot.com/2019/08/amazon-soil-poorest-in-world.html?m=1

Monday, August 26, 2019

America: Who We Are

“By the twentieth century, America had be­come a proud land—the American with history as his witness, self-assured. So it was doubly surpris­ing after World War II when the Republic was at the apparent zenith of her power, that Americans found themselves reeling under the hammerblows of events. Emerging out of the 1950s, the Repub­lic plowed into heavy seas.

Campuses, college towns, and inner cities erupted in flames and violence. A gulf opened up between youth and aged, hip and square, black and white, conservative and liberal and radical. Various and sundry revolutions tore through the nation like a series of earthquakes—drugs, rock, and rebellion against the establishment among them—shaking the Republic to its foundations.

With the suddenness of lightning, President John F. Kennedy, the image of our youth, was struck down. The nation mourned and was never the same. Then the Martin Luther King and another Kennedy assassination followed.
And darkness covered the land. Or was it a brooding spirit? Who could see the outworking of an inner design, the gleam of hope, or the turn­ing of the tide?

By the mid-seventies, the storm had largely subsided. But the nation was rudderless and in the doldrums. Vietnam and Watergate troubled the national psyche and left most Americans un­sure of their purpose.

The Ford years were aimless and lackluster. During the Carter term, U.S. prestige so declined that our allies no longer considered us leader of the free world, but let us know we were now an "equal partner." Soviet imperialism was unchal­lenged because it was presumed to be unimpor­tant or not to exist.

America, it seemed, had become a helpless, hapless giant. The capture of sixty-six Americans in Iran was the height of ignominy. Or was it? It turned out, in fact, to be the turning point. First there were tremors of shock and indignation. Then the seizure galvanized a growing but largely unnoticed wave of patriotism. Yankee ingenuity, humor, and determination returned.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan mobi­lized American resolve to resist Communism. And suddenly the apparently dormant American spirit awakened to the dawn of a resurrection.

President Carter was out of step with the new mood. The electorate swept him from office and installed a man who promised to lead America to a restoration. Ronald Reagan, fortieth American president, rode the resurgent American spirit to a resounding victory.

Although one of Ronald Reagan's campaign themes was the return to American greatness, his election was more of an effect than a cause—he was riding the wave, not causing the tide. Some­thing subtle, yet more powerful than any man, is and always has been propelling the nation for­ward towards some unnamed goal.

Even though the pomp and circumstance of American heritage is back in style, the new patrio­tism is still more of a feeling than a conscious artic­ulation of values. There is still confusion about what course of action We the People should take. The problem is not one of indecision, but one of identity—when you know who you are, you know what to do...”

George Washington Acknowledges the Invisible Hand of God

In George Washington’s First Inaugural Address, he makes reference to the invisible hand of God that helped form the then fledgling nation: 
“...it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official Act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the Universe, who presides in the Councils of Nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the People of the United States, a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes: and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success, the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own; nor those of my fellow-citizens at large, less than either. No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. And in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their United Government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities, from which the event has resulted, cannot be compared with the means by which most Governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage...”

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/inaugtxt.html

"By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability and expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, altho' death was levelling my companions on every side."
George Washington July,1755

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Signing the Declaration of Independence & The Speech of the Unknown Man

“The following is taken from Washington and His Generals: or, Legends of the Revolution by George Lippard, published in 1847. The signers of the Declaration of Independence sat in Independence Hall at Philadelphia, contemplating losing their heads or being hanged. Their courage wavered. The document sat there unsigned. An extraordinary catalyst was needed to move them to action. An unknown man rose and gave an electrifying speech. He disappeared soon after.

By signing the Declaration, all were guilty of high treason under British law. The penalty for high treason was to be hanged by the neck until unconscious, then cut down and revived, then disemboweled and cut into quarters. The head and quarters were at the disposal of the crown.
No wonder they wavered! No wonder they discussed back and forth for days on end before signing the document that carried so grave a penalty. An old legend dramatizes the story of the one who galvanized the delegates and gave them the courage to sign that document.
But still there is doubt–and that pale-faced man, shrinking in one corner, squeaks out something about axes, scaffolds, and a–gibbet!
"Gibbet!" echoes a fierce, bold voice, that startles men from their seats–and look yonder! A tall slender man rises, dressed–although it is summer time–in a dark robe. Look how his white hand undulates as it is stretched slowly out, how that dark eye burns, while his words ring through the hall. (We do not know his name, let us therefore call his appeal).”

Read “THE SPEECH OF THE UNKNOWN”:
http://www.ascension-research.org/Sign_that_Document.html

Transcendent Origins of the United States of America

"No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men, more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency."
George Washington;
First Inaugural Address

“An Invisible Hand in the affairs of men? In an age of power politics, scientific miracles, and ultimate threats, it may come as a surprise that one of the most widely accepted and ancient of ideas was that a divine hand established and ruled nations. Early Americans believed that an unseen intelligence directed the course of the American Revolution and guided the destiny of this nation. John Adams wrote, "America was designed by Providence for the theatre on which man was to make his true figure." And Patrick Henry said, "There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations."
“Evidence of the invisible hand of God is nowhere more apparent than in the affairs of our nation. For the swift ascent of the American Republic was nothing less than miraculous.
From a loose coalition of seaboard states united as much by their dislike of the British king as by brotherly affection, the United States grew from a tiny preindustrial community to the world's preeminent economic, technological, and military power in less than two centuries. America became a land of political and religious freedom, a beacon of hope to the nations, and a stage for the playing out of a great historical epic...”

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Taking Responsibility Yields Freedom: Bring God Goodness Into The World

If mankind is going to survive and thrive, then we need to become more humane towards one another and protect and restore both the wilderness areas and waters of our world. In order for this to happen, we’re going to need all of the Good Will, Intelligence and Compassion that we can muster. This can usher in the spiritual energies from above that would exponentially increase the good results of our efforts. Even so, the battle against evil in all of its forms shall continue until mankind’s freedom is fully manifest.

Friday, August 23, 2019

Greenhouse Effect’ Explanations Need Improvement

Global Warming cannot be denied without first denying the scientific reality that carbon dioxide and other large atmospheric molecules have a blanketing effect on infrared radiation (heat).

It’s not a hard concept to understand when it’s explained properly. Thus, I find it perplexing that scientists and educational organizations have done such a limited job of describing and demonstrating the greenhouse effect via high quality short videos that can be disseminated and shared on line. They do a wonderful job with lectures and scientific papers explaining the interface of Newtonian physics and Quantum physics in explaining how energy is transformed and transferred in the atmosphere, but this neglects the needs of the average citizen who has the right to be shown the scientific proof demonstrating that CO2 is a greenhouse gas.  We need simple concrete demonstrations like 8th grade Earth Science teachers use in their classrooms, such as this one:
Demonstration Videos:
“Greenhouse Gas Demo” (4 minutes):
‪‪‪https://youtu.be/kwtt51gvaJQ‬‬‬

Greenhouse in a Beaker:

https://youtu.be/UJp4-qCiPHU


When I searched for short videos about the greenhouse effect, I had a hard time finding any that I were worthy of posting in my blog. There may be more out there; but, if I couldn’t find them in a three hour search, how can “working hard to make a living” John Q. Public be expected to access them? Here they are:
https://samslair.blogspot.com/2019/08/youtube-videos-describing-demonstrating.html?m=1

Note: The climate change denier groups are, however, creating a prodigious volume of pseudoscientific videos, and their followers are very eager to share them.
https://theconversation.com/pseudoscience-is-taking-over-social-media-and-putting-us-all-at-risk-121062

YouTube Videos Describing & Demonstrating the Greenhouse Effect

The “greenhouse effect” is the blanketing effect of larger atmospheric molecules (like carbon dioxide) on infrared radiation which warms the planet. 
Explaining the Greenhouse Effect:
http://samslair.blogspot.com/2019/08/carbon-dioxide-absorbs-and-re-emits.html?m=1
—————————————————
Videos Describing:
How Greenhouse Gases Warm the Earth (4 minutes):
https://youtu.be/IADrwC_BcVA


How Burning Fossil Fuels Leads to Climate Change (5 minutes):
https://youtu.be/gBLQUplzZZo

Greenhouse Gases: Climate Change
(1 1/2 minutes):
https://youtu.be/3JX-ioSmNW8

How Do Greenhouse Gases Actually Work? (3 minutes):
https://youtu.be/sTvqIijqvTg
—————————————————-
Demonstration Videos:
Greenhouse Gas Demo (4 minute):
‪‪https://youtu.be/kwtt51gvaJQ‬‬

Greenhouse in a Beaker:

https://youtu.be/UJp4-qCiPHU


“Mythbusters tests global warming theory- does CO2 warm air?”
(3 minutes):
https://youtu.be/pPRd5GT0v0I

“Why Is Atmosphere Warming” —greenhouse gases (5 minutes):
https://youtu.be/AaY36yxFb1o

“Carbon Dioxide Trapping of Earth's Heat - A Laboratory Experiment”
(2 minutes) Lab Demo starts at one minute mark:
https://youtu.be/bX4eOg2LaSY
—————————————————
“In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.” by Carl Sagan

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Carbon Dioxide Absorbs and Re-emits Infrared Radiation

CO2 and other large atmospheric molecules have the uncanny ability made possible by quantum mechanics to interact with infrared radiation (heat). In doing so, the rate of radiant heat’s escape into space is slowed down. Thus, the level of radiative energy present in the lower atmosphere is higher to the degree that these molecules are present.
https://scied.ucar.edu/carbon-dioxide-absorbs-and-re-emits-infrared-radiation

Ways of Explaining the Greenhouse Effect:
https://samslair.blogspot.com/2019/08/ways-of-explaining-greenhouse-effect.html?m=1

Why Carbon Dioxide Is A Big Deal

Some people are of the opinion that the percentage of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is so small that their contribution to the greenhouse effect would be minuscule. I see their reasoning; however, the even smaller amount of carbon dioxide of the past has been sufficient to keep the planet from being a giant ball of ice. And with no carbon dioxide at all, the temperature on Earth would be below zero degrees Fahrenheit. 
https://samslair.blogspot.com/search?q=Snowball+Earth&m=1

For perspective, if you could bring all the clouds and water vapor in the atmosphere to the surface, it would form a ‘liquid’ layer less than an inch deep, and clouds alone would create a layer no deeper than a coat of paint. If just this past year’s carbon dioxide emissions alone could be confined to an undiluted layer of pure CO2 at the surface of the Earth, the layer would be about 1.5 inches thick. 

“Nitrogen, oxygen and argon together comprise more than 99 percent of the atmosphere. None of these three gases absorb either visible or infrared light. It is as though, when it comes to the absorption and emission of light, the atmosphere’s three main players don’t exist.”

So, the only thing left to consider is the actual total amount of the greenhouse ‘trace gases’.

Water Vapor:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_vapor

Carbon Dioxide and Water Vapor As Greenhouse Gases:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/if-carbon-dioxide-makes-u/mm

Past CO2 Levels:
https://www.climate.gov/sites/default/files/paleo_CO2_2018_1500.gif


Note: Carbon dioxide is the most important of Earth’s long-lived greenhouse gases. It absorbs less heat per molecule than the greenhouse gases methane or nitrous oxide, but it’s more abundant and it stays in the atmosphere much longer. And while carbon dioxide is less abundant and less powerful than water vapor on a molecule per molecule basis, it absorbs wavelengths of thermal energy that water vapor does not, which means it adds to the greenhouse effect in a unique way. Increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide are responsible for about two-thirds of the total energy imbalance that is causing Earth's temperature to rise.
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-annual-greenhouse-gas-index

How Alike Are Lemmings, Humans and Wile E. Coyote?

With the Arctic being in the news so much lately, I’m reminded of a film,”White Wilderness”, that I watched in 1958. It was about the Arctic and showed lemmings plunging ‘en masse’ over a cliff, into the sea and drowning as they desperately searched for fresh resources. Sort of a ‘mass suicide’ resulting from the pressures exerted from overpopulation.

It turns out though that this popularized belief about lemmings is entirely false. The Disney film crew had actually staged and forced the lemmings off the cliff. Cruel? Definitely. But this was 1950s Hollywood, where animal cruelty was common. So killing off a few dozen rodents for the amusement of theater-going audiences was no big deal.
https://gizmodo.com/lemmings-dont-commit-mass-suicide-disney-pushed-them-o-1614038696

Note: This is reminiscent of antics used today in order to grab viewership or to sway public opinion. Usually this is harmless, like when Wile E. Coyote defies the laws of physics in pursuit of the Roadrunner. However, when an overwhelming volume of “climate science denial” social media, YouTube videos and propagandistic media both big and small using pseudoscience are produced for the unwary, I’m reminded of myself as an 8 year old falling prey to an concocted untruth.
https://theconversation.com/pseudoscience-is-taking-over-social-media-and-putting-us-all-at-risk-121062

Comment: Though the truth is that lemmings don’t commit mass suicide, mankind is apparently capable of doing so by first overpopulating and then by proceeding to deny the physical reality described by the Greenhouse Effect. The ‘cliff’ we are approaching is real enough, and unlike the cartoon cliff that Wile E. Coyote’s falls off again and again while defying death and gravity using cartoon physics, our being suspended indefinitely in midair over the abyss is about to end whether we look down or not.

Truth thru humor:
http://commentphotos.com/gallery/CommentPhotos.com_1407347817.jpg

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/DistantRingedBigmouthbass-small.gif

https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/religion-lemming-suicide_pact-cult-suicide-follow_the_leader-wmi110607_low.jpg

https://www.toonpool.com/user/3447/files/why_do_we_behave_like_lemmings_467735.jpg

https://investorshub.advfn.com/uimage/uploads/2016/10/7/qivpyL1.jpg

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Ways of Explaining the Greenhouse Effect

The “greenhouse effect” is the blanketing effect of large atmospheric molecules(like carbon dioxide) on infrared radiation which warms the planet. 

Greenhouse Gas Demo (4 minute):
https://youtu.be/kwtt51gvaJQ

Greenhouse in a Beaker:

https://youtu.be/UJp4-qCiPHU


As shortwave visible sunlight strikes the surface of the Earth, that which is not reflected back into space is converted into long wave infrared radiation and radiated away as heat which interacts with large moleculed trace gases such as carbon dioxide. This slows down the escape of heat into space and results in higher atmospheric temperatures.

Sunlight is part of the electromagnetic spectrum of photon energy coming from the sun. Except for clouds, dust, etcetera, “visible light” (short waved energy) passes through the atmosphere unimpeded. Infrared light (long waved energy), however, gets entangled with large atmospheric molecules such as carbon dioxide, water vapor and other greenhouse gases. The visible light hits the planet’s surface and is either reflected or absorbed. That which is absorbed becomes heat and is radiated away in every direction as infrared radiation. [You’ve seen thermal pictures of bodies emitting heat energy.]

As the ‘infrared radiation’ is radiated out towards space, the larger atmospheric molecules (carbon dioxide, water vapor, etcetera) interact with this long waved photonic energy. These molecules absorb and reemit the photon energy again and again, thus slowing down the escape of this thermal energy emission. This is the “greenhouse effect”, the blanketing effect of carbon dioxide, etcetera on infrared radiation.

In conclusion:
We have a smaller amount of infrared radiation coming directly from the sun and a very large amount of such emanating from the planet’s surfaces.  

In regards to the greenhouse effect, atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen molecules are of no consequence because infrared radiation (heat) passes through them as though they weren’t even there. That’s because they’re too small. However, greenhouse gas molecules are large and tangle up long waved infrared radiation. 

Note: If you could bring all the clouds and water vapor in the atmosphere to the surface, it would form a ‘liquid’ layer less than an inch deep, and clouds alone would create a layer no deeper than a coat of paint. If just this past year’s carbon dioxide emissions could be confined to an undiluted layer of pure CO2 at the surface of the Earth, the layer would be about 1.5 inches thick (and is growing thicker).

Electromagnetic Spectrum:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum

Photon Energy:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon_energy

Visible Spectrum of Light:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visible_spectrum

Infrared Radiation (IR):
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared

Greenhouse Effect:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_effect
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
As sunlight strikes an object, if it is white (like snow) then the photons mostly reflect off as light back into space. If the color of the surface is darker, then more of the photons are absorbed and converted into heat (infrared radiation). This heat gradually radiates away from the surface of the planet, with the only thing ‘slowing it down’ being the larger air molecules like carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, etcetera. Molecules like nitrogen and oxygen have no ability to absorb and reemit infrared radiation.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The greenhouse effect is all about Infrared Radiation (IR). It is the ‘heat’ that results from sunlight striking the surface of the planet. As the heat (IR) radiates away from the surface, it interacts with the large molecules present in the atmosphere. Water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and several other significant gases are examples of such. This interaction slows down the escape of IR out into space. To visualize this, watch the following five second clip that repeats:
https://scied.ucar.edu/carbon-dioxide-absorbs-and-re-emits-infrared-radiation
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Heat Mirage:
https://images.app.goo.gl/u1ievvuGgg9eD8KP6
If you’ve ever seen ‘heat waves’ shimmering off of a hot asphalt road far ahead of you on a long straight highway, then you have seen ‘infrared radiation’ in action. Infrared radiation (IR) continually radiates heat away from the surface of the Earth. Nitrogen, oxygen and argon gases of the air do not interfere with the passage of IR; but, large molecules like carbon dioxide, methane and such (greenhouse gases) slow down the escape of IR (heat) out into space. Called the ‘greenhouse effect’, it’s like a slowdown on the freeway, with the heat waves getting jammed up — and this causes the air temperatures to rise. This is a natural process. Indeed, if it weren’t for the greenhouse effect, our planet would have always been a frozen ball of ice. 
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Visible light of the ‘electromagnetic spectrum’ passes through the atmosphere. It strikes and warms the surface of Earth as the result of being converted to infrared radiation (IR). Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases absorb and reradiate this heat. It is this heat index that is increased as the volume of greenhouse gases increases in the atmosphere.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The "Greenhouse Effect" is a basic physics phenomenon in which the atmosphere of a planet snares radiation emitted by its sun; that is, the trapping of the sun's warmth in a planet's lower atmosphere due to the greater transparency of the atmosphere to visible radiation from the sun than to infrared radiation emitted from the planet's surface.
Gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane and other trace gases allow incoming sunlight to pass through, but, retain heat radiated back from the planet's surface.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Why CO2 Acts As A Thermal Blanket

Sometimes, things need to be explained in terms such that kids can then explain it to their parents. The Greenhouse Effect is one such topic:

As sunlight strikes an object, if it is white (like snow) then the photons mostly reflect off as light back into space. If the color of the surface is darker, then more of the photons are absorbed and converted into heat (infrared radiation). This heat gradually radiates away from the surface of the planet, with the only thing ‘slowing it down’ being the larger air molecules like carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, etcetera. Molecules like nitrogen and oxygen have no ability to absorb and reemit infrared radiation.

Supplemental easy explanation:
http://samslair.blogspot.com/2019/07/easy-explanation-of-greenhouse-effect.html?m=1

Two articles with excellent explanations:
https://scied.ucar.edu/carbon-dioxide-absorbs-and-re-emits-infrared-radiation

https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/climatescience/climatesciencenarratives/a-greenhouse-effect-analogy.html

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Sixth Great Extinction: Are We Next?

Some people fail to appreciate that plants and animals have been suffering increasing extinction levels because of human activities. Denial of AGW only perpetuates and exponentially expands the current extinction levels that may very well come to include us. Indeed, denying the solid scientific fact that carbon dioxide has a blanketing effect on infrared radiation indicates that these people are not fully realized humans, and perhaps likely candidates for extinction themselves. I just don’t want them taking me with them.

https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/world-wildlife-magazine-archive?utm_campaign=magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_source=magazine&utm_content=1908-e

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Global Warming: As Rome Burned, Nero Fiddled

As the Arctic warms, the northern arboreal forests are drying and forest fires are increasing. It’s not just the trees and understory burning, but also the spongy mossy like ground cover that is like a thick blanket. This extra biomass going up in smoke increases the amount CO2 in the atmosphere. These forests will not easily return in a climate that’s not as suited to their needs. Also noted are peat moss bog fires. With this combined with terrestrial and oceanic permafrost melt releasing methane, there’s the fact that a darkening Arctic with decreasing ice and snow cover will increase the amount of sunlight absorbed and converted to heat. After all, global warming is all about the blanketing effect that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have on ‘infrared radiation’ (heat).

https://www.climatecentral.org/news/arctics-boreal-forests-burning-at-unprecedented-rate-16278

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23082018/extreme-wildfires-climate-change-global-warming-air-pollution-fire-management-black-carbon-co2

https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/drought-and-heat-exacerbate-wildfires

Note: As each year passes, we consistently hear in the news about new temperature records. Record numbers of fires are also being set as higher temperatures dry things out, especially in northern latitudes where temperature increases are the most dramatic as evidenced by further increased ice melt.

If you want a calm and ‘actual factual’ presentation of topics related to climate change and energy, I recommend the YouTube channel “Just Have A Think”.  
I’d start with the episode:
Arctic Sea Ice Loss: What’s the latest?
(17 minutes):
https://youtu.be/YYJIwGACKY8

Humor and Satire:
https://images.app.goo.gl/XdRgqaRTRhEPjh2h6

https://images.app.goo.gl/jRYSgvHGZMd7Lwmv6

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnxmtvSUIAA438g.jpg

https://pics.me.me/energy-independence-preserve-sustainability-green-jobs-livable-cities-what-if-10383197.png

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Global Warming: Angst and Anxiety Syndrome (negative manifestations arise from fear)

“Since it is generally acknowledged that humanity have a desire to be happy and that they have the right to pursue happiness, we ask this question: Would it not be wise for people in all walks of life to work toward the healing of those conditions which they bring upon themselves through their unfruitful anxieties?

We avow that there are lawful concerns and that men and women should make reasonable provision for their future and for eventualities which they know from personal experience may arise. But it is so unnecessary for them to become apprehensive about life in general, or even life specifically, to the point where their apprehensions unbalance their thinking, their emotions, and their entire psyche.

Anxiety is the great warp of life. It warps perspective without producing any perceptible benefit whatsoever. Anxiety is the cause of people's tendency to hoard the goods of this world. Like frantic squirrels they pile up their winter's supply of nuts. They accumulate an oversupply of every imaginable item, and they deprive themselves of happiness by their unwarranted concerns and their unnecessary and time consuming preparations for every eventuality.
Just as we do not expect that the students will cease to be providential, so we do not expect that they will become unduly involved in antici- pating a doomsday that never arrives...”

Page 218+
http://the-eye.eu/public/Books/Occult_Library/New%20Age/Saint%20Germain%20on%20Alchemy.pdf

Note: Until lately, the ‘human miscreation’ of ‘induced global warming’ had mostly been due to our not understanding the blanketing effect of carbon dioxide on infrared radiation. However, this single physical law shall now begin to increasingly inflict natural consequences upon all life on the planet because of our continued unsequestering of vast amounts of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide. 

The kinds of protections that God and His Angels provided that we routinely take for granted shall not be sufficient to totally protect us from ourselves — because God Almighty Himself bestowed Free Will upon us, protecting us from what we now knowingly inflict upon ourselves would be a violation of Cosmic Law.

However, any efforts that we take to mitigate the cause of our self inflicted curse will be blessed and multiplied exponentially. So, do not allow fear to blind you to the truth of what is, nor be driven into despair — neither attitude leads to the right kind of action!

Extreme Alarm:
https://media2.giphy.com/media/12ZXZv7aoviBgI/source.gif

Rigid Denial:
https://media.tenor.com/images/8b9fcbbc4e209784b3e26944e9ea2b09/tenor.gif

The Jesuits and Franciscans Who Survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki

In Hiroshima, a group of eight Jesuit priests lived in a presbytery near the parish church less than a mile away from where the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city exploded well within the total death and devastation radius. Keep in mind this was a blast that killed 80,000 people almost instantly and up to a total of 140,000 eventually.
All eight priests in their home building sat in the direct kill zone while for miles around nothing but ashes remained. They were not only “virtually unscathed from the effects of the bomb” but none of the group suffered either the ill-effects of radiation or major injuries from the bomb blast.  Furthermore, while their building received some damage, unlike others it still stood.
While it is true that small numbers of other civilians in the blast area survived, all presumably suffered, and most if not all eventually died from radiation sickness.
What is truly miraculous is that radiation sickness did not affect ANY of the Jesuits at that time or decades later.
Why were these eight priests spared in an area of total death and destruction?
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2015/08/09/the-priests-who-survived-the-atomic-bomb/

https://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/6/24/a-divine-miracle-for-skeptics-who-do-not-believe-in-miracles/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Schiffer

"In a strange parallel to what happened at Hiroshima, the Franciscan Friary established by St Maximilian Kolbe in Nagasaki was likewise unaffected by the bomb which fell there. St Maximilian, who was well-known for his devotion to the Blessed Virgin, had decided to go against the advice he had been given to build his friary in a certain location. When the bomb was dropped, the friary was protected from the force of the bomb by an intervening mountain. So both at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, can we see Mary’s protective hand at work?"

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Why Have Russia’s Siberian Fires Been Under Reported?

For the past two months, widespread fires have been burning unchecked in Siberia. If you did not know, then ask yourself why? And why do we know more than we want to about Epstein, but not this stupendous event relating to advancing global warming. To see how small the media coverage has been, search:
russia siberia fires 2019 —
Then note the news organizations reporting and those not reporting and the overall lacking amount of coverage.

Though it’s tempting to think it’s simply part of the climate change denial and disinformation effort, I’m also remembering some of the near misses by significant sized asteroids that were not reported until they had actually passed (even though we’d been tracking them). Possible asteroid strikes and rampant global warming induced forest fires cause angst that might feed already heightened anxiety levels.

Perhaps, with the European heat wave and related coverage along with the preceding climate news from Australia etcetera, it was just too much. Or maybe, because it’s in Siberia, we just don’t care. Not click worthy? Whatever the reason(s), I find it disheartening that YouTube has been providing better coverage of this event than established news media.

Fighting Climate Change With Condoms

The world’s population is projected to jump to 9 billion by 2050, with more than 90 percent of that growth coming from developing countries. In countries with access to condoms and other contraceptives, average family sizes tend to fall significantly within a generation. 
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/09/23/the-new-weapon-against-climate-change-condoms/#.XVK4HyROnDs

But, America’s “Global Gag Rule” thwarts the international family planning and health services effort.
https://www.ippf.org/global-gag-rule

It should be noted that the population growth in developing countries exacerbates efforts to curb carbon emissions:
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/climate/

Humor:
https://images.app.goo.gl/RaB3cKZ5wNsuPFLQ8

https://www.cartoonistgroup.com/properties/pett/art_images/cg4f95a96ebd18b.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/4a/d8/b9/4ad8b9a3db16d3977164287bed2b8142--the-planets-child-free-humor.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bd/02/ba/bd02ba4caf168eedec73d3ac61859cf2.jpg