Archives for February 2011

‘The Government says it wants a “climate expert” to sell the message to the public, and who do they pick? A small mammal expert whose predictions on the climate are so wrong any normal person would slink off in shame. But not Flannery, the Teflon prophet, reality doesn’t stick to him.  How can it be that the outrageously wrong get away with it with reputations intact (and get rewarded too)? Blame the mainstream media. Blame also a government that thinks it’s a good use of public money to promote known failures.

[Read more…] about Tim Flannery’s Failings Ignored

‘There is an important point that was missed in your article about the Stefan-Boltzmann equation. Applying the argument to the “greenhouse gas” theory is quite simple: there can be no “back radiation” from the colder atmosphere to the warmer earth’s surface.  It violates the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics as it applies to radiative transfer…’

More following from Dr. Martin Hertzberg, a coauthor of “Slaying the Sky Dragon-Death of the Greenhouse Gas Theory”…

‘Consider two flat, parallel surfaces each with unit emissivity facing each other. One surface is maintained at a higher temperature, T_h while the other surface is maintained at a lower temperature T_c . If the hotter surface were facing a complete void or surroundings at 0 K, the flux of radiant energy that it would emit and that the void would receive is sT_h⁴.

‘Similarly, if the colder surface were facing a complete void or surroundings at 0 K, the flux of radiant energy that it would emit and that the void would receive is sT_c⁴. But neither of the surfaces is facing a void: they are facing each other, and accordingly the net flux of radiant energy in the field between them is:

                             I (net) = s (T_h⁴ – T_c⁴ ) ,

and is always from the hotter surface to the colder surface as required by the 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics.

‘Nowhere in the radiation field between the two surfaces is the flux of radiant energy equal to what either of the surfaces would emit if they were facing a complete void at 0 K! Thus, the simple use of the Stefan-Boltzmann equation to characterize the emission from a source of radiation as though it depends only on the temperature of the source without considering the temperature of the surroundings that are receiving the radiation, is a misuse of the equation, and the notion that a colder source can transfer radiant energy to a warmer object involves not only a misuse of the Stefan-Boltzmann equation but also a violation of the 2^nd Law.   

‘The situation is analogous to a simple problem in mechanics.  A 1 Kg mass is sitting on a frictionless table and is subjected to a force of 10 Newtons from left to right and simultaneously subjected to a force of 7 Newtons from right to left. Now you are free to calculate what the motion would be if only the 10 Newton force acted on the mass, or if you prefer, you can calculate what the motion would be if only the 7 Newton mass operated on it. But, of course, neither of those calculations describes the real motion, which is that of a 3 Newton force acting from left to right. There is no motion to the left from the weaker force.     

‘Thus it should be quite clear that the simple use of the Stefan-Boltzmann equation as though it can characterize the radiant energy being transferred from a source to its surroundings without any reference to the conditions of the surroundings that are receiving that radiant energy, is a misuse of the equation.’

Dr. Martin Hertzberg coauthor of  Slaying the Sky Dragon-Death of the Greenhouse Gas Theory

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Part 1 on the Equation:  https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/2011/02/a-note-on-the-stefan-boltzman-equation/

The Dragon book:  http://slayingtheskydragon.com/

Apologies in advance: The equations inserted into the above texts appear to be displaying OK as posted – using internet explorer as my browser.   But I have had problems before with mathematics in blogs displaying properly – so apologies in advance if they aren’t looking right.

Finding anthropogenic global warming (AGW) shapes in the fog of variability is a major challenge, simply because natural climate variability is large.  And then the problem becomes attributing those changes to a climate mechanism in an interlinked dynamic climate system.

One of those climate detective stories taking some intriguing twists and turns is the rainfall decline in Western Australia which has been the impetus for the Indian Ocean Climate Initiative (IOCI).  Their web site explains:
“In southwest WA, a drying trend has been observed …  The rainfall decline has been most apparent in late autumn and early winter, with a major drop in rainfall totals occurring in the 1970s, and possibly another more recently in the 1990s.  Averaged across southwest WA, a step decrease in total annual rainfall of almost 10% was seen in the mid-1970s, though individual locations would have experienced a greater decrease.”

[Read more…] about Looking for AGW in a Sea of Natural Variability: Declining Rainfall in SW Western Australia (Part 2) – A Note from Luke Walker