Here is basic climate science overlooked in Richard Riethmiller’s letter (“
The Sun’s radiation warms the Earth. The Earth radiates away heat in the infrared. Equilibrium temperature is reached where incoming solar radiation, minus one third scattered back into space, balances the outgoing heat.
At first examination, equilibrium temperature would be only 12°F, well below freezing, and our atmosphere comprised 99% of diatomic (two-atom) molecules could do nothing to retain more heat. However, the atmosphere also contains a small fraction (< 0.05%) of triatomic (three-atom) molecules that absorb and reradiate the escaping infrared radiation. These molecules are known as greenhouse gases, primarily water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone and methane. Together they return enough infrared radiation to raise the global equilibrium temperature to a comfortable 47°F.
The most important of these greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide (CO2), now measured at 0.04% – but a value that we are rapidly increasing. For reference, CO2 concentrations remained between 0.02 and 0.03% for the past 800,000 years.
Riethmiller is unimpressed that such a small amount of CO2 can be of any consequence. Let us express this in another way: Each cubic centimeter (~ ¼ teaspoon) of air contains 2.7 x 1,019 molecules, so the 0.04% is 10.8 x 1015 (10.8 quadrillion) CO2 molecules per cubic centimeter – a truly large number.
Left unchecked, rising CO2 is more than capable of warming Earth’s global temperature into unknown and unwelcome territory.
Let’s keep our global temperature where it is.
Gary RottmanDurango
