What’s your thoughts on climate change?

Question

A hoax?

abc3643 · Accepted Answer

Definitely not a hoax. I have a physics background having gotten my BS 39 years ago. To me, it's obvious and should be obvious to anyone studying physics who's had at least a class in thermodynamics.

The physics behind climate change - really, global warming - is the same exact physics that explains the atmospheres of the other planets.

In short, here's the story...

1. Our atmosphere is composed almost entirely (over 99%) of diatomic nitrogen (N2), diatomic oxygen (O2), and monatomic argon (Ar) which is a noble gas so it doesn't form molecules. So, with N2 and O2 being diatomic, there is a single bond connecting the two atoms. A bond isn't something tangible, but it is essentially associated with an electromagnetic field. These can store energy just like a battery does.
>>> That's very important to understand: bonds between atoms in a molecule can store energy.

2. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is triatomic and has 2 bonds. Water (and water vapor) is H2O and it is also triatomic and has 2 bonds. Ozone (O3) is triatomic, but it has 3 bonds. These are all also gases in the atmosphere. But, they all have more than 1 bond so they can all store more energy than the diatomic molecules. In science, we say atmospheric gases with more than 2 molecules (and thus more than 1 bond) are "greenhouse gases".

3. OK, so given #1 and #2, it follows that the more greenhouse gas molecules are in the atmosphere, the more energy is going to be stored in the atmosphere.

4. Now think about these bonds as like rubber bands. If you pull a rubber band so it stretches, you are giving it potential energy. When you let go, the rubber band quickly restores itself; it releases the potential energy converting it into kinetic energy which is the energy of motion. So, remember that:
>>> Energy stored in bonds between atoms can become kinetic energy causing things to move.
We'll come back to this in a bit.

5. This is very important and not intuitive to people:
>>> In science, (absolute) temperature is a direct measurement of the average kinetic energy of a molecule. If you double the absolute temperature of a gas, its molecules will, on average, have twice the kinetic energy.

6. OK, we are almost there, so temperature is the average kinetic energy of a molecule, but kinetic energy comes from potential energy which is stored in the bonds of molecules.
>>> In a nutshell, that's global warming. By having more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the atmosphere stores more potential energy which is then released as kinetic energy which then drives up the temperature.

7. I should write more because it is important but I don't have much time. In particular, sunlight hitting a molecule it puts energy into the molecule - either causing it to move (thus increasing kinetic energy or temperature - now you know why summer is hotter than winter) or, like stretching a rubber band, the sunlight is stored in the bonds of the molecule.

8. Without all these greenhouse gases, a lot of sunlight hits the Earth but then reradiates back into space. But, with these greenhouse gases, the molecules of those gases are absorbing more of the sunlight keeping that energy in the atmosphere instead of having it radiate into space.

9. What does this remind you of? A blanket. If you go to sleep without a blanket, your body radiates heat into the room, but, if you have a blanket, your body is radiating heat into the blanket which then reradiates partly into the room but also partly into you. Thus, you stay warmer under a blanket.

Well, the greenhouse gases are acting like a blanket for Earth, thus it is warmer than it would be without them. The more greenhouse gases we put into the atmosphere, the more blankets we add to Earth and, thus, it gets warmer.

>>>>> THAT's why it is called "global warming".

The science is simple actually and was first predicted in 1896 by 1903 Nobel Prize winning Swedish physical chemist Svante Arrhenius.

So, think about that... A Swede almost 130 years ago predicted and explained what is happened. It's no "liberal conspiracy" or hoax.

NamerOfStars · Accepted Answer

Look up. Notice the shell of ice encompassing the planet? Of course not- it's been gone since the Oxygen Catastrophe. Likewise, you don't have glaciers steamrolling through Turkey any more, do you?

The climate does change, and fairly frequently, in geological terms. How much humanity contributes to it is the question- but as we've seen from the prevalence of acid rain, we CAN have serious long-term consequences over huge areas.

This does not mean, however, that swapping out oil and natural gas for sulfur hexafluoride is a good idea; quite the opposite. THAT is where the scam lies. The best bet for the future in the short-medium term is a diverse power grid, centered around nuclear for electrical generation, possibly transitioning to fusion if we manage to get that working (and get helium-3 refining going, too; no point in bathing ourselves in radiation); geothermal if we can't. If we could completely tap the Yellowstone supervolcano, we could meet all of humanity's energy needs (not just electrical, but ENERGY) as it stands right now. We can't; the tech's not refined enough, and it's a National Park, anyway. But we have two other supervolcanoes on this continent, and who knows how many more elsewhere.

So it's not a scam in the sense of not existing, but it IS in the sense that it's a danger of unknown extent that's being used to push some extremely dubious measures.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Fly on private jets, but tell others not to.

CoolCatMar1 · Accepted Answer

I am not sure if it's even true.

lightbulb27 · Answer

climate is changing - true. always has been

Climate is changing more drastically - not positive, might be, seems like it

Some portion of Change is due to co2 buildup - probably, not positive.

Most of it is due to co2 buildup - not sure about that, major changes in the past...

The solution is to covert to electric cars so we don't run fossil fuels - uh, I'm not seeing that as improvement. maybe some.

It's good idea to diversify from oil - good idea yes.

We should change our economy system so we are more efficient with the resources we have - yes. I've not heard a single one of the yhead knuckleheads say that, but if you are saying that... I agree.

We should all grow more plants, garden space, flowers, trees because they lock c-2 in the the ground - I agree, I thought that was science.

We need to adapt our social systems so that we can care for people caught in climate emergenies - agree, we need to up our game globally because some people will suffer more than others. that's the good human thing to do.

We're going to suffer some massive natural events - agree. possibly even earth tilt changes, asteroids, earthquakes, etc..

etc..

zeitgeist057 · Answer

Honestly it's a fairly minor issue compared to the rest of the ways we are destroying our environment and killing off other species and choking out life, which is quickly starting to affect humans.

We are already increasing in incidence of health issues. One example I think is going to do us in faster and much sooner than the oceans rising by 6 inches over the next 100 years is us killing off our food supply and drowning in plastics.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/yog7qmGZIlQ

NaultD · Answer

It's going to be the worse thing to happen to humanity. What covid killed 1,000,000 additional people over average deaths. How many suffered? All of us I would say some more then others but still count us all together

Climate change when it hits all of us will be unspeakable evil in the name of survival. Our border crisis of 200,000 or 300 000 will not even matter today when a billion 1,000,000,000 people with nowhere to go. No future no other thouts then survive. Our daily expectations of fathomless entertainment and information in our pocket will go away. Then faster our daily bread and even faster the words meaning "our daily bread".

Let's be honest can you even afford today's inflation or energy costs right here right now? The whole promise is renewalable and to pay itself off with dividends. Every other energy is indefinitely a sinking ship.

DJB72 · Answer

Is the climate changing? Yes

Did human activity cause it? Not a chance

Is Carbon Dioxide a problem? Only if there's not enough of it.

Are the billionaires calling on the plebs for change the most deluded and least well informed on the subject? HELL YEAH!!!

exitseven · Answer

It is a process that the world had been going through for thousands of years. The world get warmer and then it cools down. It is usually around 30 year cycles. It is not caused by mankind. The population explosion is a bigger threat to mankind that so called global warming. We will run out of drinkable water before long. Then you will see problem.

Snakeyes7 · Answer

I don't know but the fact that the doomsday predictions were wrong every time and the fact that the politician want to tell us what we can or can't use while they don't live by the same rules makes people think it is.

I can't say I blame them.

DextroShade · Answer

I believe it is a real thing but the solutions proposed are always the most asinine things imaginable like telling people that they can't have cars and beef or countries in Europe bankrupting farmers with stupid regulations and running out out energy in the winter.

Ultimately any real solutions are going to have to be technological like nuclear fusion, turning CO2 into fuel, and thermal depolymerization of waste, not insane ecoausterity measures imposed by the state.

gorydetails · Answer

Climate change is and always will happen. The amount of human activity that contributes to that is negligible and the schemes presented by governments to “FIX” it is a complete scam.

strateguy632 · Answer

climate "change" is impossible because it has always been CHANGING, so a change from changing would be stable static.  in simple terms if the light is on it is not off!

Alex-Snow · Answer

No hoax it has been a hot past few years, lots of ice melting at the poles... something is messing with the planet and I think it is humans!

Zestyassmf1997 · Answer

Hard to know for sure. I guess it’s probably true, mostly. Some of the claims around it sound alarmist.

dolemite58 · Answer

Exaggerated, we need to cut down on pollution and explore alternative energy sources but that doesn’t mean people need to be freaking out like we’re all gonna die in the next 50 years

jamesgoldman · Answer

Real but not preventable and is as old as time itself

In_Trance · Answer

Hoax

AngryCarl · Answer

I see the climate is changing so there's no hoax there.

Jerre · Answer

There may be some truth to climate change, but I believe John Kerry takes it too far.

Anonymous · Answer

Wildly overexaggerated.

BarryLiverstone · Answer

It’s always changing

Anonymous · Answer

Keep an eye out for it

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