Two analogies to understand Global Warming

 To describe global warming, I use two analogies. One is the carbon bathtub to describe life’s carbon cycle, another the earth as a house.

Global warming, or cooling, is the result of an increase or decrease of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The average temperature of the earth rises and falls with the natural rise and fall of carbon dioxide over ten of thousands of years. It is governed by the carbon cycle. The carbon cycle comprises a sequence of events that are key to make Earth capable of sustaining life. These include plant photosynthesis, how our soil and the microbes in it respirate and decompose thereby  sequestering (trapping) carbon;  and how the ocean’s phytoplankton photosynthesize and eventually die and sequester carbon at the bottom of the ocean.                                        

I like to visualize the carbon balance as a massive bathtub with lots of spickets and valves as well as numerous drains. The tub fills with more carbon at times than it drains, and at other times it recedes. Our most recent natural carbon cycles are the 100,000 year ice ages.

What man has done to the carbon tub of life, is open a few more carbon spickets and clog a few drains drain. The three spickets are coal, oil, and gas burning.  The drains we are clogging is the carbon bank called forests and soils. The bathtub of carbon is filling up. The concentration of is CO2 is well monitored by scientists and it is going up.  See graph.

In 1856 scientist Eunice Foote* of Seneca Falls, NY conducted a series of experiments where she changed the gas mixtures in glass cylinders containing thermometers. She placed the glass cylinders in the sunlight to measure temperature variance once heated. MS Foote concluded (CO2) trapped the most heat, reaching a temperature of 125 °F (52 °C).^[11] From this experiment, she stated “The receiver containing this gas became itself much heated—very sensibly more so than the other—and on being removed [from the Sun], it was many times as long in cooling.” She speculated, “"An atmosphere of that gas would give to our earth a high temperature;”

From her, and later John Tyndall, we know heat is absorbed by CO2 and reemitted slowing earth’s heat loss to outer space. Adding CO2 is analogous to insulating a home. In fact, it is analogous to both homes I have owned. Both homes I purchased had no insulation. The houses heated slowly and cooled rapidly. The heat went lick-ity split through the roof melting the snow.

Things changed quickly when the homes were insulated. They heated quickly and cooled slowly. The snow no longer melted on the roof.*

The earth is encapsulated with a clear insulative roof called the atmosphere greenhouse gasses. As we add insulation, (CO2), we thicken the insulative layer and just like my two homes, the earth now warms to higher temperatures during the day, and at nights it no longer cools quickly.

Since the start of the industrial revolution we have increased the CO2 concentration by 50% . As predicted by Eunice in 1856, and nearly every climate scientist since, we will, and we are getting hot quickly.

Global warming is a straightforward concept. It is as if our earth was a spinning globe without oceans, mountains, and water. A bright warm light shines on the globe, called the sun providing a relatively constant heat source of light.  When the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere increases we  warm up.

 But, when you toss into the equation the effects of oceans currents, mountains, jet streams, the spinning of the earth, and especially the effects of water, you have a much more complicated, dangerous and violent reality called climate change. I will start on that next week.

*Eunice Foote’s work and foresight was almost lost simply because no one paid attention. It wasn’t until 2010 that a petroleum engineer happened upon her work and immediately recognized she was the first to discover greenhouse gasses. It is speculation that her work was not taken seriously because she was a woman.

** Two points I would like to make. First, insulating my homes saved me a pile of money. If your home leaks heat you may want to pony up for an energy audit and some additional insulation even if you must take a loan. I do not think mortgage rates will get any lower.

Second, insulation for your house means your roof stays cooler. This concept works the same for earth’s atmospheric roof called the stratosphere. Satellites measure temperature up there and it is cooling while we warm down here, just as predicted.