Category Archives: Greenhouse Effect

A Much Larger Greenhouse Effect – But Temperatures Dominated by Cooling

Guest post by Wim Röst Abstract The Earth’s greenhouse effect is much larger than suggested so far. If surface radiation and the greenhouse effect set surface temperatures, our oceans would be boiling. Fortunately, they don’t. Water Earth has a strong water-vapor-based evaporative surface cooling mechanism that effectively sets and stabilizes surface temperatures at a muchContinue reading “A Much Larger Greenhouse Effect – But Temperatures Dominated by Cooling“

Temperature Regulated Cooling Dominates Warming and Why the Earth Stopped Cooling At 15°C

Guest Post by Wim Röst Abstract It is said that the Earth’s surface temperature variations are controlled by [human-induced] greenhouse gases1. This is not the case. When cooling systems dominate, surface temperatures are set by the cooling system and not by the system that is warming the surface. On Earth the surface cooling system dominates;Continue reading “Temperature Regulated Cooling Dominates Warming and Why the Earth Stopped Cooling At 15°C”

The Greenhouse Effect, A Summary of Wijngaarden and Happer

By Andy May This post was updated 9/24/2021 to reflect reader comments. The phrase “greenhouse effect,” often abbreviated as “GHE,” is very ambiguous. It applies to Earth’s surface temperature, and has never been observed or measured, only modeled. To make matters worse, it has numerous possible components, and the relative contributions of the possible componentsContinue reading “The Greenhouse Effect, A Summary of Wijngaarden and Happer”

Climate Sensitivity to CO2, what do we know? Part 2.

By Andy May In Part 1, we introduced the concepts of climate sensitivity to CO2, often called ECS or TCR. The IPCC prefers a TCR of about 1.8°C/2xCO2 (IPCC, 2013, p. 818). TCR is the short-term, century scale, response of surface temperature to a doubling of CO2, we abbreviate the units as “°C/2xCO2.” In theseContinue reading “Climate Sensitivity to CO2, what do we know? Part 2.”

Climate Sensitivity to CO2, what do we know? Part 1.

The first version of this post had an error in Figure 1. It has been fixed along with the associated text (7/5/2021). By Andy May The IPCC claims, in their AR5 report, that ECS, the long-term temperature change due to doubling the atmospheric CO2 concentration or the “Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity,” likely lies between 1.5° andContinue reading “Climate Sensitivity to CO2, what do we know? Part 1.”

The Rational Climate e-Book

By Andy May Patrice Poyet has just published a new 431-page eBook entitled, The Rational Climate e-Book, it is free to download here. Dr. Poyet studied geochemistry, remote sensing, and computer science at Ecole des Mines de Paris / Nice University. He received his doctorate in 1986. As an expert computer modeler, he spends muchContinue reading “The Rational Climate e-Book”

The Surface Energy Budget

Guest post by Wim Röst Abstract The energy budget for the surface is different from Earth’s energy budget. A look at the surface energy budget reveals that radiation is not the main factor in cooling the surface. The dominant factor in surface cooling is convection, responsible for the removal of more than three quarters ofContinue reading “The Surface Energy Budget”

Stephen, Why Global Warming is not a problem

  By Andy May The following is a quote from my book Climate Catastrophe! Science or Science Fiction? “99.9 percent of the Earth’s surface heat capacity is in the oceans and less than 0.1 percent is in the atmosphere. Further, CO2 is only 0.04 percent of the atmosphere. It beggars belief that a trace gas (CO2), in anContinue reading “Stephen, Why Global Warming is not a problem”

Does Global Warming increase total atmospheric water vapor (TPW)?

By Andy May Some have speculated that the distribution of relative humidity would remain roughly constant as climate changes (Allen and Ingram 2002). Specific humidity can be thought of as “absolute” humidity or the total amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. We will call this amount “TPW” or total precipitable water with units ofContinue reading “Does Global Warming increase total atmospheric water vapor (TPW)?”

Climate Change, due to Solar Variability or Greenhouse Gases? Part A.

By Andy May It’s more likely mostly due to both, but that isn’t really the question. Virtually everyone accepts that climate changes and that CO2 and methane are greenhouse gases; and probably everyone remembers from grade school that the Sun is a variable star. The debate is over how much of recent global warming isContinue reading “Climate Change, due to Solar Variability or Greenhouse Gases? Part A.”

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