On 10/10/2013 08:27, dennis@home wrote:
On 09/10/2013 23:36, Fredxx wrote:


Most gases are very good insulators. What has this got to do with the
CO2 greenhouse effect? You still don't know what it is, do you.

He (and some others) doesn't understand that different wavelengths are
absorbed more by some materials like gases and glass.

Crucially that molecules with three or more atoms in them have a soft
mode that is excited by and can absorb and re-emit infrared radiation.

That however doesn't mean the bit of co2 we put into the environment has
a huge effect on climate. There is little evidence to support that
theory. If there was it would be published.

It was originally published by Tyndall in 1860 and independently by
Fourier in around 1820 see for example the AIP review at:

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm

Whilst you could complain about the name "greenhouse effect" the physics
is clear that adding CO2 slows down the escape of outgoing thermal
radiation at temperatures characteristic of the Earth's surface.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown