It is an interesting fact that Arrhenius (1896 and 1906b) obfuscates his critical backradiation mechanism of the “Greenhouse Effect” by focusing the reader’s attention on the idea he falsely attributed to Fourier, which is now found in the dictionary; namely, that the atmosphere admits the visible radiation of the sun but obstructs the infrared radiation from the earth. However, Arrhenius’ calculations are based on surface heating by backradiation from the atmosphere (first proposed by Pouillet, 1838, p. 44; translated by Taylor, 1846, p. 63), which is further clarified in Arrhenius (1906a). This exposes the fact that Arrhenius’ “Greenhouse Effect” must be driven by recycling radiation from the surface to the atmosphere and back again. Thus, radiation heating the surface is re-emitted to heat the atmosphere and then re-emitted by the atmosphere back to accumulate yet more heat at the earth’s surface. Physicists such as Gerlich & Tscheuschner (2007 and 2009) are quick to point out that this is a perpetuum mobile of the second kind – a type of mechanism that creates energy from nothing. It is very easy to see how this mechanism violates the first law of thermodynamics by counterfeiting energy ex nihilo, but it is much more difficult to demonstrate this in the context of Arrhenius’ obfuscated hypothesis.
Suffice it to say that heat is lost at the earth’s surface when it is radiated to the atmosphere. The atmosphere having gained this heat loses it when it is re-radiated, half into space and half back to earth because radiation is omnidirectional – being emitted by a molecule in any direction. However, such heat losses are not represented in the “Greenhouse Effect”, which recycles this heat instead. According to this hypothesis, this heat joins yet more heat absorbed from direct solar radiation during the relay – much of which is simultaneously emitted and recycled again. The intensity of terrestrial radiation absorbed by the atmosphere is thus increased and, taken in addition to that absorbed by the earth’s surface, now totals more than the radiation available from the sun (e.g. Kiehl & Trenberth, 1997; Trenberth et al., 2009). The logic is seductive, yet flawed. Radiation is simply the amount of power per square metre. This power cannot be used and stored at the same time. Power cannot be raised without intensifying the source or adding another source of energy. You can prove this at home by observing the consequences when you unceremoniously unplug the power lead from your amplifier (while listening to some music). Without the additional source of power, it simply cannot amplify the signal from the radio receiver or the DVD pickup.
Authors who defend the “Greenhouse Effect” attempt to characterise it as a form of heat congestion (e.g. Archer, 2009). The problem with this defense is that no amount of heat congestion can result in an average power output exceeding the average power input. The defense is also subject to the limitations of “Kirchhoff’s Law”. “Kirchhoff’s Law” dictates that while emissivity and absorptivity are always equal for a given material or body, the equality of absorption (not absorptivity) and emission (not emissivity) of radiation defines thermal equilibrium between bodies that are not in thermal contact. Even the misconception that selective absorptivity makes it easier for radiation to get in than to escape, breaks down when both the atmosphere and the surface of the earth are treated as a whole body. Regardless of internal complexities, a whole body ultimately can only emit the exact amount of radiation it receives, or a lesser amount corresponding to a lower pre-equilibrium temperature if thermal equilibrium has not been reached. By increasing absorption, emission is increased – which was confirmed experimentally by Stewart (1858, 1860a, 1860b) and Kirchhoff (1859 & 1860). Moreover, this greater emission has a cooling effect on the atmosphere and Frankland (1864, p. 326) asserts that without this loss of heat by emission to space, atmospheric water vapour could not condense into clouds and precipitation. This cooling by radiative emission is further confirmed by Ellsaesser (1989) and Chillingar et al. (2008). Thus surface evaporation and subsequent condensation at altitude has a powerful cooling effect, which in addition to convection, offsets the high degree of heating that occurs at the surface.
Inasmuch as we raise the absorptivity of the atmosphere, we equally raise its capacity to emit radiation to space. This was understood by Tyndall, Frankland and Fourier, as well being experimentally confirmed by Pouillet (1838, p. 44; translated by Taylor, 1846, p. 63). This concept of “Kirchhoff’s Law” possibly dates back to the experimental work of Leslie (e.g. 1804, p. 24). However, the inclusion of “Kirchhoff’s Law” in Fourier (1822) is highly suggestive of a much earlier source given the abundance of pre-existing qualitative thermodynamic principles that were subsequently quantified by Fourier. The principle that a material’s absorptivity is equal to it’s emissivity, thus, has a long history with many experimental confirmations. This same law of physics, experimentally conifrmed by numerous scientists, dictates that the temperature of the atmosphere cannot be changed simply by increasing absorptivity. “Kirchhoff’s law” thereby functions as the key to understanding the behaviour of passive body temperature in constant incident radiation. Moreover, when Arrhenius (1896, p. 255) added the radiative transfer between the earth’s surface and the atmosphere to the conductive transfer between the earth’s surface and the atmosphere, he effectively duplicated the radiative transfer quantity, because it was already included in the conductive transfer quantity (“M”). This quantity is representative of net heat flow in accordance with Fourier’s Law which, further, does not distinguish between kinetic and radiative modes of heat transfer across a thermal contact.
Not only did Arrhenius duplicate heat, thereby invoking an energy creation mechanism to equip carbon dioxide with a power source it does not have, he propagated an erroneous explanation of how greenhouses work, which he falsely attributed to Fourier. Moreover, Arrhenius used this erroneous explanation as an alternative focal point for his “Hothouse Effect”. With respect to the “Greenhouse Effect”, as it later became known, this misdirection proved most effective in drawing scrutiny away from the weakest proposition of the idea – as attested by its consequent Concise Oxford Dictionary definition. It is upon this litany of error and misdirection that the “Greenhouse Effect” and the implicitly “anthropogenic” nature of global warming and climate change is based. Having ascertained the various mechanisms of the “Greenhouse Effect”, we are ready to test this hypothesis against the laws of physics as they apply to real and repeatable experimental results of a physical and material nature.
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