On 01/01/2008, at 9:39 PM, Ray Lawley-Sinclair wrote:
> could be...but (although I'm not really an expert) I think there
> might be a fair lag between actual emissions and the warming
> process...perhaps because of the heat radiation being trapped in the
> atmosphere?
>
> I'm also not sure how much of an effect greenhouse gases have on
> incoming solar radiation, since a lot of it is of the EM type. I
> thought it was more a matter of the converted heat energy from said
> radiation being trapped by the greenhouse layer...the whole "gas
> blanket" thing
I wasn't talking about greenhouse gas emissions, I was talking about
soot.
In the 17th century through to the early part of the 20th there
was a lot of coal burned, which produced a lot of particulate matter.
Particles in the atmosphere will stop solar energy from getting to
the ground in the first place (greenhouse gasses trap heat radiated
from the ground after the sun has warmed it). The Northern hemisphere
air is much, much cleaner now than it was in, say, 1900.
You don't need to change atmospheric transparency very much to cause
a noticeable effect on the ground, as the USA found out in the days
following 9/11 when they grounded all the aeroplanes, which cleared
all the contrails from the sky and caused unseasonably warm
temperatures.
Who'd have thought that kerosene-burning CO2-belching aeroplanes help
to keep North America cool, eh?
- mark
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I tried an internal modem, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
but it hurt when I walked. Mark Newton
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