[Coral-List] Pseudoscience

Eugene Shinn eshinn at marine.usf.edu
Mon Nov 5 10:31:44 EST 2012


Dear Douglas, There may be a problem with item 3 of your posting, You 
said,  "CO2 absorbs infrared radiation (a physical fact not in 
dispute), the more of it is in the atmosphere, the more it heats the 
earth." That statement wrong.  The whole business of CO2 being a 
greenhouse gas started with  Arrhenius 1896, (Arrhenius, Svente, 
1896, On the Influence of Carbonic Acid upon the Temperature of the 
Ground: The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophic Magazine and 
Journal of Science, fifth series, p. 267.)
Arrhenius started this debate with his original work on atmospheric 
gases, but he placed a constraint upon the contention that increasing 
CO2 concentration causes greatly increased temperature:
"Thus if the quantity of carbonic acid increases in geometric 
progression, the augmentation of the temperature will increase nearly 
in arithmetic progression." (p. 267)
This statement simply argues that if "carbonic acid" levels were to 
double from today's value, the temperature change would be 0.64 C in 
a dry atmosphere, and 0.22 C in the real, wet, atmosphere. Thus, 
there would be no significant effect of doubling CO2 on temperature 
from the present concentration of nearly 400 ppm.
To recap, if the present concentration of CO2 was only 100 ppm, the 
effect of doubling would be significant, but at 400 ppm, the effect, 
logarithmically declining, is insignificant. 
    
Again I am just the messenger. This information was sent to me last 
week. If you disagree take it up with Arrhenius.  Gene
-- 


No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
------------------------------------ -----------------------------------
E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
University of South Florida
College of Marine Science Room 221A
140 Seventh Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
<eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
Tel 727 553-1158---------------------------------- 
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