I'll try not to get too political with this blog entry, but I'm really curious how some people would interpret the portion of the chapter we just read on global warming. I found the part on the cooling of the stratosphere by increased levels of carbon dioxide to be rather interesting. A few of my friends who don't believe in global warming have used that as an argument for their beliefs. Fact Check: The temperature of the stratosphere causes carbon dioxide to emit more thermal IR into both space and the troposphere than it absorbs as photons. So, my friends were right to say that the stratosphere is cooling, but where is a portion of that thermal IR going? It's warming the troposphere! Sounds like global warming to me...
The belief that global warming is a made up phenomena is, in my opinion, a frightening display of ignorance. I will concede the point that the significance of the anthropogenic contributions to global warming are debatable, but you can't use that as a reason to believe the entire process is fake. Ask any astronomer about proof of global warming and they will point out two that are "close to home" in an astronomical sense: Venus and Mars. They are basically the "poster planets" of global warming with their atmospheres composed of mainly CO2! Stephen Hawking actually states that Venus could be our fate if global warming gets out of hand in this short video clip.
Continuing on the topic of astronomy, an argument that has always made me laugh is the one in which snow storms and cold weather are meant to be proof of the global warming hoax. Fact Check: Our weather is closely related to the level of solar activity. In general, that is based on the number of sun spots since sun spots produce solar flares. Our sun was completely sun spot-less for nearly 75% of 2009! I'll believe that to be the source of our cold weather before I call global warming a lie. Even a website dedicated to an anti-global warming campaign points out the sun spot fact...how ironic....: http://www.globalwarminghoax.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment