The best news about global warming is that it’s not being caused by increasing solar output nor any other natural uncontrollable cause. The good news is that mankind generally understands that it’s the ‘artificially amplified greenhouse effect’ which is the source of increasing global temperatures. With this in mind, it well behooves us to rapidly advance and apply our scientific and technological knowledge to the point that the burning of fossil fuels to produce electricity will become as antiquated as the burning of whale oil for light.
Quote: “Anxiety must go. It must be replaced by faith and solemn confidence in the outworking of the divine plan.”
Note: As sunlight (photons) is warming the surface of the world, thermal heat energy is also radiating away from our planet in the form of ‘infrared radiation’ which passes freely thru the atmospheric gases of nitrogen and oxygen which do not absorb infrared heat. Indeed, if it weren’t for greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that ‘do interact’ strongly with infrared energy and ‘impede the escape’ of Earth’s radiant heat, then the planet’s biosphere would be perpetually frozen solid. Thankfully, even though greenhouse gases comprise only 4/10ths of one percent of the atmosphere, they are so powerful that they maintain a ‘blanketing effect’ by successively ‘absorbing, holding, and then releasing’ infrared heat energy over and over, again and again. In doing so, they gyrate wildly, thus causing them to vigorously collide with other atmospheric molecules which, in turn, collide with other air molecules, imparting the kinetic energy of motion throughout the atmosphere — and this vibratory state of kinetic energy registers as temperature.
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Marcott reconstruction chart
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‘CO2 infrared radiation quantum level’
‘Amplified greenhouse effect’
Shortened version:
The best news about global warming is that it’s not being caused by increasing solar output or any other natural uncontrollable cause — and the really good news is that mankind now generally understands that it’s the ‘amplified greenhouse effect’ which is the source of increasing global temperatures.
Note: In explaining why the low percentage of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere exerts such a powerful blanketing effect that sustains global warming, we need to be aware that they are constantly ‘absorbing and releasing’ infrared heat energy over and over, again and again, and that during the process of doing so they gyrate wildly, thus causing them to vigorously bump into other atmospheric molecules which, in turn collide with other air molecules, imparting the kinetic energy of motion throughout the atmosphere — it is this overall cumulative vibratory state of kinetic energy that registers as temperature.
Search related topic: ‘quantum thermodynamics in greenhouse effect’
What, really, is the “Greenhouse Effect”:
As Earth’s surface absorbs the warmth of the sun’s rays, it, also, radiates heat back out towards space. Since the atmospheric gases of nitrogen and oxygen are incapable of retaining this heat (infrared), it is the heavier greenhouse gases that capture and release this energy over and over and over, again and and again, et al. Each time a greenhouse gas molecule captures an infrared photon, its newly heightened energetic state causes it to gyrate wildly until this energy is finally released as another photon to then be recaptured by another greenhouse gas molecule. Meanwhile, the ‘gyrating’ greenhouse gas molecules are repeatedly bumping into other molecules like nitrogen and oxygen and imparting kinetic energy to them which makes the atmosphere vibrate at a higher and higher rate. This process results in rising temperature and is primarily due to the large amount of kinetic energy of all the vibrating atmospheric gases.
“The rate of molecular vibration is the kinetic measure of heat. The input of energy via infrared radiation increases this kinetic action and, thus, temperature.”
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Thumbnail Sketch:
As sunlight strikes the Earth, it is either reflected away back into space, or else it is absorbed as heat (infrared radiation) which then gradually radiates away. It is the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that slows down the escape of infrared radiation into space.
Note: Because nitrogen and oxygen cannot retain infrared heat, if it weren’t for the quantum power of greenhouse gases, the Earth would be permanently frozen solid.
https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/how-climate-works/carbon-dioxide-absorbs-and-re-emits-infrared-radiation
NOTE: Importance of the Greenhouse Effect —
Nitrogen and oxygen compose almost 99% of the Earth’s atmosphere. Neither gas can retain infrared heat at all. This means that our planet would be a permanent ball of ice if it weren’t for the greenhouse gases which do absorb heat (infrared radiation).
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Summation: If not for gases like carbon dioxide, the Earth’s biosphere would be perpetually frozen solid because infrared radiant energy is absorbed only by greenhouse gas molecules (not by nitrogen or oxygen). The absorption of this energy causes the greenhouse gas molecules to vigorously vibrate and bump into and impart kinetic energy to surrounding air molecules. The total atmospheric field of kinetic and radiant energy is what registers as temperature.
Note: Though it’s often pointed out that nitrogen and oxygen comprise 99% of the atmosphere, it’s seldom mentioned that they are unable to absorb infrared energy. Their contribution to atmospheric temperature is their ability to transfer the kinetic energy that they receive from vibrating greenhouse gases.
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/02/25/carbon-dioxide-cause-global-warming/
Visualizing the Physics of the Greenhouse Effect:
Greenhouse gases, unlike nitrogen and oxygen, readily absorb ‘infrared energy’ (heat). Absorption of such radiant energy causes these molecules to gyrate wildly and vigorously bump into neighboring molecules, thus causing them to ricochet off of other surrounding molecules that, in turn, bump into other molecules which bump into more, etcetera, etcetera. This energy of physical motion represents ‘kinetic energy’ — the measure of which is temperature.
Think of atmospheric heat as being the unified energy field of kinetic energy (physical particle action) and radiant energy (electromagnetic wave action).
Note: Some say that global warming is God’s Will as though mankind’s Free Will had not a thing to do with increasing global temperatures.
Note: Stand outside in the full sun on a clear day and feel the radiant energy of the sun on your skin as being warmer than the ambient air temperature. The radiant energy your body is absorbing is actually visible light converted to infrared energy known as heat, while the air temperature you feel is the vibratory action (kinetic energy) of air molecules as they’re kept abuzz by wildly gyrating greenhouse gas molecules that have become excited by their absorption of infrared radiant energy. [Oxygen and nitrogen molecules do not absorb heat.]
Because oxygen and nitrogen do not absorb heat but greenhouse gases do, our burning of fossil fuels steadily increases the heat carrying capacity of the atmosphere.
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