We'll all be dead soon...

[Islander]

[owl]

Just another summer with lowest temps ever according to our resident expert

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/27/world/europe-heat-wave-spain-wildfire-intl/index.html
____________________
Observation is the greatest source of wisdom.

[Islander]

[Easy-X]

[Easy-X]

[Islander]

[Islander]

[Riejufixing]

[Ste]

inb4 abusive rating.

[Riejufixing]

[Islander]

[chickenstrip]

[Easy-X]

Well the basics are to do with radiation (not the nuclear kind, just radiant energy in general.) Different things (gases, dust, etc.) are better or worse at reflecting differing wavelengths (or types of radiant energy.)

Simple stuff: clouds, i.e. water vapour. If you have a lot of cloud cover a good chunk of the energy from the sun will get reflected back to the upper atmosphere. "But what about Venus? That's bloody hot, man, and very cloudy!" Okay, so maybe not "water" clouds on Venus but reflective clouds nonetheless but clouds reflect both ways, up or down, so they can also trap heat and Venus is very geologically active! So much so that the entire surface has reformed a good few times while on Earth that has probably only happened the once early in our planet's formation.

How about gases? Ozone's a nice easy one. O₃ is basically an unstable form of the O₂ we know and love and is made, in simple terms, high up in the atmosphere by exposing O₂ to Ultraviolet radiation which is doubly ironic as the upper atmosphere is the first place that UV hits on its way from the Sun and O₃ reflects UV.

"Surely some UV would be nice, I could do with a tan!" No, getting the full exposure of UV the Sun throws at us would be pretty deadly as in killing almost everything (you could go live in a cave if you like!) and on top of that you've got all that energy that was reflected now also heating up the planet. "Ozone layer depletion" was probably the first thing, when I was younger, ppl really went bat shit crazy about and with good reason!

"So what about these 'greenhouse' gases ppl talk about?"

Greenhouses are generally made of glass. Why is that? Glass lets in a good range of the energy in sunlight but traps some of that energy so it can't get back out. Bear this in mind...

Imagine it's a bright sunny day and the ground is soaking up the heat. Some of the energy will be radiated back obviously not as visible light but infra red. CO₂ and Methane (CH₄ or "cow farts") are good at letting sunlight get to the ground but reflect back infra red. So a bit like the glass in your greenhouse.

Now the thing that's really kewl (definitely not "cool" as that would be a pun too far!) is that we need the clouds and dust and CO₂ and so on to do its job and trap some heat for us. Without it the planet would mostly be in a permanent ice age

The tricky bit though - which keeps all of the scientists knee-deep in hookers and grant money - is what happens if you fuck up this system? If we carry on chucking CO₂ (Methane is much, much worse!) into the atmosphere surely things might get a bit too hot! Then the weather starts getting a bit iffy and it all goes in a vicious circle until we end up coveting the last of the V8 Interceptors.

However, you could probably find some trick-cyclist who will say "but ice caps melting is a good thing!" WTF, man, really?! "Yeah, it'll be cool - literally - 'cos they'll be more water vapour and that'll reflect some heat!" Okay... err... that sounds plausible. So we should, like, carry on just as we are? "Definitely, it'll all be fine..."

tl;dr If you skipped to here you're probably a fan of Trump, move along...
____________________
Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[Sister Sledge]

Pssst: Venus is closer to the Sun and therefore hotter. Just saying..

The answer to global warming is to cover the planet in aluminium foil (shiny side up) and it will reflect things..
____________________
CCM 404 DS

[Islander]

[-]

[MarJay]

[Islander]

[Easy-X]

[owl]

It’s fine guys, just a normal cooler than ever summer as usual as per our resident expert

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/28/france-on-red-alert-as-heatwave-forecast-to-reach-record-45c

I mean at least some people’s heads will be cool, buried in all that sand or up their own arses
____________________
Observation is the greatest source of wisdom.

[Lord Percy]

Venus is a lot closer to earth and its atmosphere is primarily CO2. I don't understand its relevance here at all. It's also over 400 degrees C, and that's on a cold day.

Also, small point of order - greenhouse gases don't reflect heat, they store it via resonance. Infrared energy is similar to the resonance frequency of CO2, which means simply the CO2 vibrates more than other molecules when heated, and the heat is stored in those vibrations.

[-]

[Easy-X]

[Islander]

[Islander]