I am engaged in discussion with a modestly prominent climate skeptic
who argues that global warming isn't a problem because as CO2
concentrations rise climate sensitivity reduces. I recall coming
across this notion before but I don't know how much peer-reviewed work
has been done on it. I'd
Sensitivity is the equilibrium change in global-mean temperature per
unit of radiative forcing. Linearity has been demonstrated up to much
higher forcings than will ever be reached by even the most pessimistic
scenarios.
Early IPCC reports might cover this. I recall work by Kiehl on this back
Just to be clear--
The radiative forcing due to CO2 increases is logarithmic--that is, the
radiative forcing going from 300 to 600 ppm is the same as going from 600 to
1200 ppm. Thus, the forcing due to the rising CO2 concentration does
decrease on a per ppm basis.
However, forcing is not
Ken, cc List
1. I like your analysis. It seems to be a new and needed analytical
methodology. Unfortunately, I think many will take it to be quite discouraging
about reaching carbon neutrality in the (2030?) time period proposed by Dr.
Hansen, even much later.
One bright spot however is
