Townhall.com, Where Your Opinion Counts
Talk Radio:   Bill Bennett   Mike Gallagher   Dennis Prager   Michael Medved   Hugh Hewitt   
BREAKING NEWS  LeftArrow - Townhall.com : Conservative, Political, Republican   RightArrow - Townhall.com : Conservative, Political, Republican  
Columns, funnies & more in your inbox!
  • Check the boxes and send us your email address to receveive your free newsletter
  • Your daily must-read of conservative columns, cartoons and news. Coulter, Sowell, Krauthammer and more.
  • Townhall.com’s weekly inside scoop on what’s happening behind the scenes in the world of politics. When news breaks, we report.
  • Signup to receive the latest daily Townhall cartoons
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Thomas Sowell :: Townhall.com Columnist
Global Hot Air
by Thomas Sowell
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
[+] Text [-]
 
Poll
What was the biggest suprise of Election Day?



The political left's favorite argument is that there is no argument. Their current crusade is to turn "global warming" into one of those things that supposedly no honest and decent person can disagree about, as they have already done with "diversity" and "open space."

The name of "science" is invoked by the left today, as it has been for more than two centuries. After all, Karl Marx's ideology was called "scientific socialism" in the 19th century. In the 18th century, Condorcet analogized his blueprint for a better society to engineering, and social engineering has been the agenda ever since.

Not all the advocates of "global warming" are on the left, of course. Crusades are not just for crusaders. There are always hangers-on who can turn the true believers' crusades into votes or money or at least notoriety.

Whether the globe really is warming is a question about facts -- and about where those facts are measured: on land, in the air or under the sea. There is no question that there is a "greenhouse" effect. Otherwise, half the planet would freeze every night when there is no sunlight falling on it.

There is also no question that the earth can warm or cool. It has done both at one time or another for thousands of years, even before there were SUVs. If there had never been any global warming before, we wouldn't be able to enjoy Yosemite Valley today for it was once buried under thousands of feet of ice.

Back in the 1970s, the environmental hysteria was about the dangers of a new ice age. This hysteria was spread by many of the same individuals and groups who are promoting today's hysteria about global warming.

It is not just the sky that is falling. Government money is falling on those who seek grants to study global warming and produce "solutions" for it. But that money is not as likely to fall on those skeptics in the scientific community who refuse to join the stampede.

Yes, Virginia, there are skeptics about global warming among scientists who study weather and climate. There are arguments both ways -- which is why so many in politics and in the media are so busy selling the notion that there is no argument. Continued...

1 2
| Full Article & Comments | Next >
Share:
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
 
About The Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of The Housing Boom and Bust.
 
TOWNHALL DAILY: Sign up today and receive Thomas Sowell and Townhall.com's daily lineup delivered each morning to your inbox.
 
©Creators Syndicate
Simplest of science proves the hype!!!!!
Worried about apocalyptic sea level rises? Still straddling the fence over the GW debate? All juiced up over whether or not you should move inland sometime in the next 1000 years? Sleep well tonight with these two simple experiments:

A tray of ice can be a real life model for the arctic ice cap. Take an ice tray full of ice and leave it on the counter of your kitchen overnight. A drinking glass of ice water can be a real life model for the ice caps melting into the ocean. Take a drinking glass and fill it with ice cubes, then fill the glass to the very brim with water and leave it on your kitchen counter as well.

Next morning, while you are having your cup o' joe, check to see if either the tray or the glass overflowed during the night. If it did, then worry about the rising sea levels. If it did not start asking the tough questions of the motives of "scientists".

Carbon Dioxide in the Myths
Concerning the issue of global warming, it seems clear that various involved scientific communities do not communicate with each others. This truth was discovered by having managed many brilliant scientists and engineers in labs and technology centers for many years. With a technical background is in device physics, I started the analysis with "counting molecules" above every square meter of earth, it can be determined that there are 8 X 10^25 (8 followed by 25 zeros). About 85% of greenhouse warming occurs when infrared light (photons) at a wave length just under 15 microns are emitted by the earth. When in energy balance, the earth radiates 235 watts per square meter (W m^-2)into space. Since each radiation event can occur in any direction, it can be determined that at the surface, the earth radiates at an average of 470 W m^-2. The energy of a 14 micron infrared photon is "fixed" at 1.34 X 10^-20 Joules. (19 zeros after the decimal point before the 134) For reference, a 14 micron photon is more energetic than a 15. Therefore, the average number of photons per second per square meter emitted by the earth is 3.5 X 10^22. For these photons, each CO2 molecule has a absorption cross section of about 5 X 10^-22 m^-2. What it all means is that at 100% absorption, it requires only 2 X 10^21 molecules above each square meter to capture ALL the photons the earth emits (and that accounts for 85% of global warming). The earth ALREADY has 40,000 times MORE CO2 then is required! Of course in the world of physics,there are other governing issues. However, It can be shown that even if CO2 concentrations doubled, warming from CO2 would be limited to about half a degree centigrade.
So why is there such a difference in the science between scientific communities? Part of the issue is that Mechanical Engineers maintain the HITRAN data base for photon absorption and don't seem to talk to anyone outside their community except the occasional physicest. It is the Cosmetologists who rely on massive, though flawed, computer models, but don't seen to talk to either physicists or mechanical engineers. Worse, is the "sloppy science" of assuming correlation is cause. There is clear evidence that both temperature and CO2 levels rose and fell in sync at least six times in the last 600,000 years. It is NOT clear which drives the other or if both are driven by something else.
Sign Up to Post Your CommentsSign Up to Post Your Comments
If you are already registered, click here to login. Otherwise, please take a few seconds to register with Townhall.com. Once you sign up, you’ll be able to post your comments immediately, use the action center, get podcasts, and more!
Note: Fields marked with a red asterisk (*) are required.
Salutation:
First Name:
*
Last Name:
*
Email:
*
Nickname:
*
Note: Nick name will be shown when you post comments.
Address 1:
*
Address 2:
City:
*
State:
*
Zip:
*
Phone:
      
Your daily must-read of conservative columns, cartoons and news. Coulter, Sowell, Krauthammer and more.
(Bi-Weekly) We highlight the best opportunities from our partners for surveys, action items and more.