06-09-2019, 07:44 PM
"I understand you. If you agree with what the politician is saying, he is discussing the findings of scientists. If you don't agree, he is repeating baseless, unfounded fictions of charlatans."
Old croc - what Malcolm Roberts did in the video was an appeal to ignorance. Whether it was deliberate or not, I don't know, but it was obvious within a few seconds of watching the video that he is not a scientist.
I haven't crunched the numbers so don't know if he is correct in what he claims about the number of relative molecules in the atmosphere, but what he left out is their relative importance in absorbing infrared radiation - the radiation the earth's surface gives off to balance what it receives at mostly optical wavelengths.
Firstly, he compares air to CO2. Well, CO2 is part of the air, so I don't know what he's comparing. Secondly and more importantly, greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methane are extremely efficient at trapping heat in our atmosphere, they are basically infrared absorbers which prevent heat escaping from the Earth's surface. Even a small increase in either molecule's abundance in the atmosphere has an enormous effect on on the Earth's energy budget because they are so efficient in absorbing infrared radiation.
His video attempts to trivialize this by simply talking about the number of molecules and completely ignores the more important point about the relative infrared absorption strengths of gases in the atmosphere. It's a con-job.
Old croc - what Malcolm Roberts did in the video was an appeal to ignorance. Whether it was deliberate or not, I don't know, but it was obvious within a few seconds of watching the video that he is not a scientist.
I haven't crunched the numbers so don't know if he is correct in what he claims about the number of relative molecules in the atmosphere, but what he left out is their relative importance in absorbing infrared radiation - the radiation the earth's surface gives off to balance what it receives at mostly optical wavelengths.
Firstly, he compares air to CO2. Well, CO2 is part of the air, so I don't know what he's comparing. Secondly and more importantly, greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methane are extremely efficient at trapping heat in our atmosphere, they are basically infrared absorbers which prevent heat escaping from the Earth's surface. Even a small increase in either molecule's abundance in the atmosphere has an enormous effect on on the Earth's energy budget because they are so efficient in absorbing infrared radiation.
His video attempts to trivialize this by simply talking about the number of molecules and completely ignores the more important point about the relative infrared absorption strengths of gases in the atmosphere. It's a con-job.