Monday, September 4, 2017

Global Warming: Denialists

There are two general types of denialists when it comes to the issue of global warming. Those that don't believe that things are warming up, and those who don't believe human activities contribute to it. As for the first group, they're either simply misinformed, or else they're practitioners of the "ignorance is bliss" philosophy. The second group overlaps somewhat with the first one. For them, they simply either don't understand that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, and/or they don't understand the physics of the greenhouse effect.

A good place to start is with a simple straight forward science demonstration using two clear 2-liter soda bottles filled partially with water, Alka Seltzer (releases CO2 when it is immersed in H2O), a lamp, and two thermometers. This will show the greenhouse effect in action.
https://youtu.be/kwtt51gvaJQ

Extrapolating the above to how our atmosphere warms up to proportionately higher temperatures by increased levels of CO2 is straightforward. And then realize that if it weren't for this fact, the Earth would be perpetually frozen over with ice. Indeed, in the early geologic history of our planet, temperatures were much higher than now despite the sun's output being much fainter. The reason was very high levels of methane and CO2 greatly amplified the greenhouse effect. This allowed water to remain in its liquid state and for life forms to begin.