Huh? Heat are photons, too, right. I mean we aren't bumping molecules together to get heat off the earth, are we?
I recently had a discussion on whether chloroflorocarbons are greenhouse gases. They actually are. If you deplete the ozone layer, you allow more UV in. Since the earth absorbs some of those photons and reradiates them as IR, then it is so. We only have two sources of heat, Sol and our radioactive core. I have not included the core in my calculations. I think it's hopeless for me to try this endeavor. <sigh> Terry On 4/24/07, Jones Beene <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
--- Terry wrote: > I'm just trying to understand the mechanism. The albedo of the earth reflects multispectrum light back into the atmosphere. How many photons are re-reflected by an additional 80 ppm of CO2? Is that the main mechanism? For some reason I thought that CO2 acted by absorbing IR from a warm earth, which otherwise would be radiated into space. I guess both mechanisms are in play. Anyway, even if he AlGore critics are correct that some, or much, or even most, of the present global heating situation is caused by increased solar activity instead of human - that should not imply that we should not try to do everything possible to ameliorate and reverse the situation, just because it is arguably partly "natural". Can we all agree on that? If a large "natural" asteroid is headed our way, shouldn't we try to intercept and nuke it, even if arguably it is "nature's way" of allowing new kinds of dominant species to emerge ....? Jones
