Showing posts with label global average temperature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global average temperature. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

College Students Shouldn't Borrow Money to Pay Global Warming Liars

College is  too expensive for students  to waste money paying incompetent professors who teach the long discredited belief that carbon dioxide has a magical power to affect the temperature of the  air.   I recognize that some of  the professors who push Enron's global warming scam are crooked rather than incompetent.   The science version of prostitutes will say science is  whatever their employers want it to be.

The claim that slight changes in the amount of atmospheric CO2 could affect air temperature is based on a primitive early 19th Century belief  that infrared radiation was  "heat" and the atmosphere was heated by trapping it..   Physicists at the time had only a limited understanding of radiation,  heat or atoms. For example,  Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier claimed in what is called the "greenhouse gas theory" that the earth was heated in part by the IR received from distant stars. Physicists would not learn until late in the century that heat is the kinetic energy of atoms and atoms are not the smallest particles of matter.  

Radiation doesn't heat the gas molecules in the atmosphere, but may heat dust and soot particles in the atmosphere.    If IR heated the atmosphere then the high energy IR from the sun would heat the atmosphere much more than the low energy IR  emitted by the ground.   Physicist R. W Wood disproved Fourier's theory in 1909.  He used small greenhouses that were identical except that one reflected IR and the other was transparent to IR. There was no significant temperature difference.   In the initial run of the experiment the greenhouse that was transparent to IR heated faster than the one that reflected IR because the reflective greenhouse reflected the high energy solar IR back into space.  If CO2 reflects IR then increasing the amount of atmospheric CO2 should result in more solar IR being reflected back into space and thus reduced solar heating. 

Warmers have yet to provide any proof that the process they talk about exists.   Their pathetic attempt to prove their theory involves creating a mathematically worthless number they call "the global average temperature". 

The so-called global average temperature  "is thermodynamically as well as mathematically an impossibility, says Bjarne Andresen, a professor at The Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, who has analyzed this topic in collaboration with professors Christopher Essex from University of Western Ontario and Ross McKitrick from University of Guelph, Canada." 

"It is impossible to talk about a single temperature for something as complicated as the climate of Earth", Bjarne Andresen says,  an expert of thermodynamics. "A temperature can be defined only for a homogeneous system. Furthermore, the climate is not governed by a single temperature. Rather, differences of temperatures drive the processes and create the storms, sea currents, thunder, etc. which make up the climate".

"While it is possible to treat temperature statistically locally, it is meaningless to talk about a a global temperature for Earth. The Globe consists of a huge number of components which one cannot just add up and average."

Even if "the global average temperature" had mathematical value, an increase couldn't prove an increase in atmospheric CO2 was responsible.   Continued increases in the heat generated by human activity should be causing an increase in air temperature. The global  warming alarmists don't claim that an increase in the teracalories of heat humans collectively introduce into the air  each day can cause dangerous global warming.  .  Instead they claim that unverified process that involves a gas that comprises only 0.04% of the atmosphere is the threat.   These people shouldn't be teaching college.    They should be reading fairy tales in a day care center. 

A normal person entering a room  that is too hot and has a space heater operating at the highest setting and  a small lit birthday candle would turn off  the space heater.  The person would treat the candle as a decorative  feature that didn't add any significant amount of heat.    The alarmist would  blow out the CO2 producng candle and ignore the heater.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Global Average Temperature an Impossibility

The following is a news release from the University of Copenhagen this past March.  I've decided not to put it in my own words because I agree with Professor Andresen,  and want the article to reflect his views rather than mine because he is the professor not me.

Discussions on global warming often refer to 'global temperature.' Yet the concept is thermodynamically as well as mathematically an impossibility, says Bjarne Andresen, a professor at The Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, who has analyzed this topic in collaboration with professors Christopher Essex from University of Western Ontario and Ross McKitrick from University of Guelph, Canada.

It is generally assumed that the atmosphere and the oceans have grown warmer during the recent 50 years. The reason for this point of view is an upward trend in the curve of measurements of the so-called 'global temperature'. This is the temperature obtained by collecting measurements of air temperatures at a large number of measuring stations around the Globe, weighing them according to the area they represent, and then calculating the yearly average according to the usual method of adding all values and dividing by the number of points.

Average without meaning

"It is impossible to talk about a single temperature for something as complicated as the climate of Earth", Bjarne Andresen says, an an expert of thermodynamics. "A temperature can be defined only for a homogeneous system. Furthermore, the climate is not governed by a single temperature. Rather, differences of temperatures drive the processes and create the storms, sea currents, thunder, etc. which make up the climate".

He explains that while it is possible to treat temperature statistically locally, it is meaningless to talk about a a global temperature for Earth. The Globe consists of a huge number of components which one cannot just add up and average. That would correspond to calculating the average phone number in the phone book. That is meaningless. Or talking about economics, it does make sense to compare the currency exchange rate of two countries, whereas there is no point in talking about an average 'global exchange rate'.

If temperature decreases at one point and it increases at another, the average will remain the same as before, but it will give rise to an entirely different thermodynamics and thus a different climate. If, for example,  it is 10 degrees at one point and 40 degrees at another, the average is 25 degrees. But if instead there is 25 degrees both places, the average is still 25 degrees. These two cases would give rise to two entirely different types of climate, because in the former case one would have pressure differences and strong winds, while in the latter there would be no wind.

Many averages

A further problem with the extensive use of 'the global temperature' is that there are many ways of calculating average temperatures.

Example 1: Take two equally large glasses of water. The water in one glass is 0 degrees, in the other it is 100 degrees. Adding these two numbers and dividing by two yields an average temperature of 50 degrees. That is called the arithmetic average.

Example 2: Take the same two glasses of water at 0 degrees and 100 degrees, respectively. Now multiply those two numbers and take the square root, and you will arrive at an average temperature of 46 degrees. This is called the geometric average. (The calculation is done in degrees Kelvin which are then converted back to degrees Celsius.)

The difference of 4 degrees is the energy which drives all the thermodynamic processes which create storms, thunder, sea currents, etc.

Claims of disaster?

These are but two examples of ways to calculate averages. They are all equally correct, but one needs a solid physical reason to choose one above another. Depending on the averaging method used, the same set of measured data can simultaneously show an upward trend and a downward trend in average temperature. Thus claims of disaster may be a consequence of which averaging method has been used, the researchers point out.

What Bjarne Andresen and his coworkers emphasize is that physical arguments are needed to decide whether one averaging method or another is needed to calculate an average which is relevant to describe the state of Earth.

Reference: C. Essex, R. McKitrick, B. Andresen: Does a Global Temperature Exist?; J. Non-Equil. Thermod. vol. 32, p. 1-27 (2007).

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070315101129.htm
 

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Global Warming and the Great Pumpkin

After  watching last Halloween's broadcast of  "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", I realized that Linus van Pelt is like those who preach global warming.    Linus doesn't let the failure of the Great Pumpkin to appear destroy his belief that the Great Pumpkin exists.   Similarly,  the climate shaman who preach  global warming won't let colder than normal winter weather in recent years destroy their belief that someday their "Great Pumpkin" will rise from the pumpkin patch and distribute warming throughout the world.

When I started examining the claims about global warming I was surprised by the total lack of any scientific basis for the claim that changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide could raise the temperature of the air.    The idea that a gas that is only 0.04% of the atmosphere could determine atmospheric temperature  sounds more like magic than science.   The false belief that heat in greenhouses and the atmosphere involved the trapping of low energy infrared radiation developed at a time when scientists falsely believed atoms were the smallest particles of matter.   Many believed Benjamin Franklin's theory that heat involved some mysterious "fluid". they called "caloric"

For those not familiar with the "Great Pumpkin..."  program, Linus van Pelt is a little boy in the "Peanuts" comic strip which is available at  Gocomics.com.  A recurring story line is his long standing belief that on Halloween the Great Pumpkin will rise from a sincere pumpkin patch and distribute toys.   On this particular Halloween he convinces Sally Brown, who considers him her "sweet babboo", to sit in the pumpkin patch with him.   She is mad when the Great Pumpkin doesn't appear.  However, Linus is undeterred in his belief that the Great Pumpkin will eventually appear.   In the comic strip Linus is occasionally shown waiting in the pumpkin patch on Halloween.   Sometimes he will persuade someone else to wait with him

I decided to wait until winter to write about the subject so everyone but global warming shaman would recognize that global warming. is as much a myth as the Great Pumpkin.   Near and subfreezing  weather  
occurred frequently in the continental U.S. except for  Florida, California, and small parts of Texas, Arizona and the coasts of Oregon and Washington. For example, on the morning of January 8 subfreezing temperatures extended south into the atmosphere over the  northern Gulf  of Mexico and west from the Atlantic to California and parts of Oregon and Washington.   The 20 F line  reached through Georgia just north of the border with Florida.  

Those who preach the global warning religion act more like religious fanatics  than scientists.   Real scientists respond to critics by trying to fi  nd more facts to support their theories.    The global warming preachers respond to criticism with name calling and threats.    They use terms such as "denier" and "contrarian" like religious fanatics use the term "heretic",    Religious fanatics rely on consensus about beliefs rather than facts.

The claims of empirical science are considered more valid than other claims when the science claims are based upon verification through observation and experimentation.    Physicist R.W. Wood tested the claim  that trapping infrared radiation helped greenhouses retain heat in 1909 in an experiment that used greenhouses that were identical except that one greenhouse used glass that reflected IR and the other used glass that was transparent to IR .   His experiment disproved the theory that "trapping" IR caused the heat in greenhouses  or the atmosphere.

Neils  Bohr subsequently demonstrated that the process of absorbing and re-emitting specific wavelengths of light by molecules  had nothing to do with heating.  Instead, the process involved changes in the energy state of the electrons.   His calculations indicated that the very small amount of energy involved was what he called a "quantum".    The quantum of energy released by CO2 molecules wouldn't be enough to heat anything.  The process of absorbing and re-emitting radiation breaks  up the radiation instead of trapping it.

Real scientists know that conduction by heated surfaces heats the atmosphere and the air in greenhouses.  At any one instant heated objects convert only a  fraction of their heat energy to radiation so heat transfer by radiation to other objects is limited.  However a heated object in what physicists call "thermal contact" with another object or gases will attempt to heat the other substance to its temperature.   The walls and ceiling of a greenhouse hold the heated air inside. Outside the greenhouse  gravity holds heated air  close to the ground. 

Global warming shaman have yet to provide any  proof that carbon dioxide or any other gas can cause heating by interacting with electromagnetic radiation.   They just demonstrate their ignorance of science and  math by claiming a nonsense number they call "average global temperature"  proves global warming.     More on the average temperature nonsense in my next post.