Quote:
Originally Posted by Malsua
Do you understand that the spectrum of energy that is absorbed and reflected by C02 molecules is already 100% saturated?
Can you process what that means? It means that no matter how much CO2 is in the atmosphere, the ability of C02 is already maxxed out in it's ability to affect the Earth.
Specifically, CO2 molecules absorb energy in several distinct infrared bands, called vibrational modes. The most significant absorption bands of CO2 occur around 2.7 μm(micrometers), 4.3 μm, and 15 μm. These absorption bands are related to the vibrational modes of the CO2 molecule.
How much of the Sun's energy are they currently absorbing in those bands? It's almost 100%.
Get it yet? If 100% of the atmosphere were CO2, it would still be absorbing the SAME amount of energy. 400ppm, 1000ppm, 10,000ppm, would have exactly zero change on the amount of warming that CO2 is doing.
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Interesting post and possibly correct as far as it goes.
I have no idea (nor, I imagine, do you) that all the energy from those wavelengths is being absorbed by the CO2 in the atmosphere. If so, the planet would look black in those wavelengths when observed from space. Perhaps that is the case but I have not found the data that shows that.
Regardless of whether 100% of those wavelengths are absorbed, your discussion doesn't continue to discuss what happens next. CO2 does not absorb that energy and just become plump and round, it eventually transfers that energy kinetically or emits that energy in a different IR wavelength. Where that kinetic energy and IR energy goes is greatly dependent on the concentration of CO2.
The lower the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere the greater the amount of that energy can reach the upper atmosphere and be released into space. The higher the concentration of CO2 the less energy reaches the upper atmosphere and the more it affects the lower atmosphere and us. Similar to a down-filled blanket - the less dense the blanket the more heat transfers through it while the more dense the blanket the more heat is held close to the body.
Attempting to make the argument that CO2 is not a greenhouse gas and does not contribute to warming is a lost cause. The science is clear that CO2 does contribute to warming. The question is whether the amount of CO2 emitted by consuming fossil fuels is a significant factor in global warming and climate change. There seems to be a strong correlation between the rate of warming and the concentration of CO2 contributed by man but so far there does not seem to be proof of causation.
Back to golf carts: There doesn't seem to be any good comparison between the emissions of a newer, efficient, high-mpg golf cart and a car. The car is designed to be efficient and has a catalytic converter to clean up some of the emissions but the golf cart burns less fuel and would therefore generate fewer emissions. At what point do the dirtier emissions generated from a smaller amount of fuel exceed the cleaner emissions generated from a larger amount of fuel? There is information for older lawn maintenance equipment but I haven't been able to find information for newer golf carts.