The Magical Powert of Carbon Dioxide

     Chemical & Engineering News has more information on the magical greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. In the May 7, 2012 Issue, Jeff Johnson reviews a Worldwatch Institute report released on April 28. Worldwatch is a Washington DC-based, environmental think tank.
    The report says that carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere declined 1.5% 2009 and rose 5.8% in 2010. Carbon dioxide concentrations are now 45% higher they were in 1990 it is said that among greenhouse gases, Carbon oxide resides the longest in the atmosphere and is the most abundant.. The author says the increase in carbon dioxide concentration is responsible for an increase in Earth's average surface temperature.
    I also heard on Fox News last Friday that Shell Energy has postponed oil drilling off Barrow, Alaska, because of unusual ice thickness; apparently the thickest in 10 years. This tends to refute somewhat the claim of global warming. However, we will not now engage in the argument of whether there is global warming or not.
    My major objective is to debunk the notion that increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration leads to global warming, with associated disastrous consequences.
    All gases resist the passage of heat. In other words they are mild heat insulators. I say mild, because gases are diffuse and it takes considerable thickness to have the same affect as solid heat insulators, such as fiberglass or cotton batting. A few inches of solid heat insulator can have the same effect as a mile of gas. The term "greenhouse gas" has been developed to relate the heat installation of gas to heat loss from the Earth's surface and related global surface temperatures.
    The term "greenhouse gas" has subsequently developed a negative or damaging impression. However, the fact is that greenhouse gases are absolutely necessary for the existence of life on earth. The high concentrations of nitrogen and oxygen (greenhouse gases) tend to equalize temperatures from the extremes of night and day; night being the absence of direct sunlight and day being direct sunlight. For example, our Moon is approximately the same distance as Earth from the Sun, which is the heat source. The moon has no greenhouse gases (no atmosphere) and has a nighttime temperature of minus 243°F and a daytime temperature of 225°F. These are clearly temperature extremes, under which life as we know it could not exist. Conversely, the average nighttime temperature in Lubbock is 45°F and the daytime temperature is 72°F. This is clearly a big difference from the Moon and obviously something we can live with.
    The several miles of mixed nitrogen and oxygen gas above the surface of the Earth are clearly responsible for the difference in average nighttime and daytime temperatures between the Moon and Earth. That mixed gas is essentially 100%. If that concentration is reduced slightly by an increase of 0.002% in carbon dioxide, does one really believe that the thermal insulation of the total greenhouse gas will be affected? Only if carbon dioxide has magical powers, and I haven't seen any data so far that shows such to be true.