Questions for Climate Change Believers

Subtitle:  Is Global Warming Just BS (Bad Science)?

If I were to attend a conference or even a dinner meeting with a featured speaker who made the presumption that man-made global warming is real, is cause for alarm, and is due to humanity's use of fossil fuels that produce CO2 into the atmosphere, I would have some questions for the speaker. 

As background, SLB has many articles on the subject of man-made global warming, and the science behind the belief that it is a problem.   Three of the most-read articles are linked below:


- A lengthy article on my journey from being a believer in man-made global warming to my conversion to a rational skeptic  see link

- The transcript of my 2012 public speech on why climate warmists are wrong, and deep global cooling is coming, see link

- And, a chemical engineer uses principles of process control to rebut the concept of CO2 causing global warming  see link


In no particular order, the questions I would ask include: 

Is it true that...

...A 1 percent change in cloud cover has more effect on solar radiation reaching Earth’s surface than all CO2 increase since 1950?

… The greenhouse gas warming effect of man-made CO2 is “trivially true but numerically insignificant,” a quote from Professor Richard Lindzen, of MIT?

… the long-term record shows that CO2 increases approximately 800 years after a global temperature increase?

...Warmer sea  surface temperatures are due to fewer hurricanes?

... Areas with Low population had no warming in 20th century?

...Sea level rise is the same on average as the deposition rate of ocean sediment?

... Arctic ice began shrinking when coal soot deposits increased?

... Arctic ice above Russia began shrinking as volcanic activity occurred on the Arctic seafloor?

...Arctic ice has stabilized since 2007?

....Antarctic ice breaks away right above the volcanic zone?

...Greenland’s ancient settlements are now buried in ice?

...Earth cooled as Little Ice Age started in year 1300 AD and lasted 550 years?

...Earth warmed as Little Ice Age ended in 1850 with zero help from humans? 

...The three cold winters of 1977-78-79 and the warm El Nino year 1998 created the illusion of global warming in the final 25 years of the 20th century?  (reference the graph below of Abilene, Texas, showing the cold winters before 1980 and the El Nino before 2000)

...Earth entered glaciation periods when CO2 was far higher than today?

...Coral reefs survived several hot ocean eras and ice ages?

… Many areas show a cooling trend, interrupted by slight warming due to El Nino events?

… A change in 50 years from 300 to 400 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere is the same as having a small house 1250 square feet with 8 foot ceilings that has 3 beach balls inside initially, 15 inch diameter, and after 50 years adding just one more beach ball?   Such a house has 10,000 cubic feet volume, and each beach ball has almost exactly 1 cubic foot volume. 


In addition, I would ask the presenter what he has to say about a few books on Global warming, including: 

"The Neglected Sun: Why the Sun Precludes Climate Catastrophe," 
by Fritz Vahrenholt and Sebastian Luning (2015)

"Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years," by S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery (2007)

"A Disgrace To The Profession," by Mark Steyn (2015)

"Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming: The NIPCC Report on Scientific Consensus," by Craig D. Idso, Robert M. Carter, et al. (2016) and

"Polar Bears In The Hot Tub," by Arthur Krugler (2018).

(note: updated to add authors' names and year of publication to book titles)

Roger E. Sowell, Esq.

Houston, Texas
copyright (c) 2019 by Roger Sowell - all rights reserved

Topics and general links:

Nuclear Power Plants.......here
Climate Change................here  and here
Fresh Water......................here
Engineering......................here  and here
Free Speech.................... here

Renewable Energy...........here  

Chemical Engineers, CO2, and Absorptive Re-Radiation

Subtitle:  Fired Furnaces Have Strong Radiating CO2; Atmosphere Does Not

A discussion on WUWT over the past few days led to the following question to me, and my answer just below.   The topic is, once again, whether the Greenhouse Effect (GHE) is real, and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can and does warm the Earth's surface below.  

One commenter asked me to comment on this statement in italics below.  My reply is below that.  

"[There is ] not even a semblance of a testable hypothesis regarding the GHE, GHGs, and all the rest of the claptrap spouted by those who should (but obviously don’t) know better."

I must disagree on this one.  My knowledge squares with the statement by Professor Richard Lindzen (MIT), that GHG warming is trivially true but numerically insignificant.  

As proof of GHE, or better expressed, radiant heat absorbed and re-radiated by CO2 and water vapor, my chemical engineering colleagues and I refer to the well-known properties of luminous gases in fired heaters.  It turns out that furnace design (for industrial fired heaters that burn coal, oil, natural gas, or other such carbonaceous fuels) requires an adjustment for the combustion products' composition.  Otherwise, the furnace does not work as expected.  

The basic textbooks on chemical engineering, and heat transfer, all have a comprehensive section on this.  The key parameters are gas composition, gas pressure (and hence the CO2 and water vapor partial pressures), flame temperature, and mean beam length.  Here, beam length is the radiating distance.   That distance is not far in a furnace, typically measured in inches.   see e.g. Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook, 8th Edition (2008) pg 5-15 et. seq.   The same material is in the same Handbook, 5th Edition (1973)  (that I used in undergrad) starting on pg 10-48 et. seq. 

The upper atmosphere where the CO2 and water vapor radiate energy back to Earth, aka TOA or top of atmosphere, has far different properties compared to a fiery furnace's interior.   It turns out that heat radiated is far less for colder temperatures, lower partial pressures, and longer beam length.  TOA is at approximately minus 50 deg C, CO2 partial pressure is very, very low at 400 ppm and (probably) one-tenth bar total pressure, and the beam length is measured in miles, not inches.   In contrast, a furnace's radiant heat section is at approximately 2600 degrees F, partial pressures are much, much higher at one atmosphere and several percent (10 to 15 percent, not ppm), and the beam length is a few inches. 

And that is why (I am certain) that Dr. Lindzen says the GHE is trivially true (we know for a fact that CO2 and water vapor can absorb and re-radiate), but numerically insignificant.  The values are so small as to be meaningless. 

The absorption and re-radiation of IR by CO2 and water vapor absolutely is true.   It's all a matter of degree. 

The chemical engineers have known this for decades.   It is why our fired furnaces work, in the countless millions, around the globe, 24/7.  And, it is also why global warming due to man's production of greenhouse gases, GHG, (primarily CO2 is blamed) is absolutely a false alarm.  

To believe that a tiny few ppm of CO2 at very cold temperatures and miles up in the atmosphere can measurably increase the Earth's average temperature requires chemical engineers to dis-believe what we know to be true about fired furnaces.  

Roger E. Sowell, Esq.

Marina del Rey, California

copyright (c) 2017 by Roger Sowell - all rights reserved

Topics and general links:

Nuclear Power Plants.......here

Climate Change................here  and here

Fresh Water......................here

Engineering......................here  and here

Free Speech.................... here

Renewable Energy...........here