For those readers who do not know of the term ‘Climategate’,
several weeks ago Internet surfers became aware of a couple of websites:
http://eastangliaemails.com/index.php
and:
http://climategate.be/
The appearance of these sites was probably the fruit of either a diligent hacker or the guilt easing effort of an honest, science dedicated, whistle blower who became disgusted with the dishonest actions of their employer at the East Anglia University’s Climate Research Unit (CRU), in Britain, who supplies global temperature data to the UN. The material contained on the sites verified what many climatologists and meteorologists have been claiming for many years, i.e., there is no legitimate scientific data which indicates any unusual long term increase in the global temperature (‘Global Warming’). Further, although carbon dioxide (CO2) ‘greenhouse gas’ in the atmosphere could have a small effect on global temperatures, it is kept in check by the massive amounts of CO2 loving vegetation on land and in the oceans (like kelp), which convert the CO2 into our life sustaining oxygen and food.
The e-mails revealed there has been an organized “cabal” of politicians and others calling themselves “Climate Scientists” who for years have been supplying falsified global temperature data to the UN to promote their efforts at worldwide wealth redistribution through CO2 emission rationing and taxing schemes, such as the US’s upcoming ‘Cap and Trade’ (industrial CO2 generation allotments), with a tax on all CO2 releases. Following the first announcement that their scheme had been uncovered by the e-mails, the major players were on the Internet commanding file deletions, hard drive erasures, and demanding prosecution of those responsible for the releases. This whole episode was dubbed by some journalist as “Climategate”. It has been an example of the radical environmentalists demanding the ‘foot’ must be made to fit the ‘shoe’.
In the world of science, it is a universally accepted premise that a ‘Scientific Fact’ is something which can be proven at any time, in any place, and by anyone with sufficient scientific knowledge. At the turn of the millennium, we started to hear about Global Warming Greenhouse Gases (GWGG). They were identified in our atmosphere as gases which convert some of the solar radiation frequency spectrum into thermal energy (“heat”), warming those molecules and the entire atmosphere. Other spectrum components pass on thru the atmosphere unimpeded and strike the Earth. Depending on conditions (mostly the color of the Earth they strike), part of them are absorbed and warm the ground or foliage. As the Earth’s surface is warmed, it radiates thermal energy, usually at lower frequencies, back toward outer space, only to encounter GWGG that now absorb them and further warm the atmosphere. Since this is much like the action done by the glass in greenhouses, they were dubbed Global Warming ‘Greenhouse’ Gases.
Of the GWGG in our atmosphere, the most significant ones and their approximate relative quantities are: water (H2O) at 90%, carbon dioxide (CO2) at 5%, methane (CH4) at 3%, and others at 2% [Elements of Meteorology, a textbook by Albert Miller and Jack Thomson]. As far as effectiveness of one molecule, water is the least of these but since there are so many, as a gas it is the most effective GWGG and responsible for about 75% of any global warming effects of GWGG. The EPA should consider declaring it hazardous to our health and call for controls on its generation, as they have done with CO2.
The carbon dioxide molecule is a more effective GWGG than water, but is in much smaller quantity in the atmosphere than water, so the end result is atmospheric CO2 has an almost negligible effect on the global temperatures. This is contrary to the argument presented by the radical environmentalist ‘cabal’ that has formed over the last 10 years (perpetrators in ‘Climategate’), who would have the world believe they have scientific proof that use of fossil fuels is causing ‘global’ warming, which itself is not even a proven ‘scientific fact’, only a lot of rhetoric, smoke, and mirrors by a crowd of environmental terrorists who get their power (and tax money) by scaring the populace. They can’t prove it with verified scientific facts, but by manipulation and help from celebrities like Al Gore (who has been reported to have made $200,000,000 by buying and selling carbon ‘credits’), they have made the ‘Lie’ that went around the world before ‘Truth’ ever got its shoes on.
The most compelling ‘Truth’ is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says fossil fuel combustion accounts for only about 10% of the CO2 in the atmosphere. The oceans contribute about 60%, in the process of maintaining about 50 times more CO2 in itself than is in the atmosphere (based on solubility’s). If we accept those numbers as scientific facts, then multiplying that 10% times the previous 5% (percentage of GWGG that is CO2), we get 0.5% as the amount of GWGG caused by CO2 from fossil fuel combustion . . . a scientific fact.
The preceding is the opinion of the author and not that of ECN.
Ken Johnson is a Registered Professional Engineer, retired Aerospace Engineer, and retired Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, and Metrology. He resides in the East Mountain area of Albuquerque, NM.