EnviroLink Forum

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With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

Carbon as an atom found in various molecules has unique properties when it comes to heat and to optics. Diamonds are clear and 100% carbon, Coal and graphite are black and mostly carbon. The most thermally conductive materials in the world are made of pure carbon (nanotubes and diamonds). Infrared light is a color of light just like blue and green are but it is too far past "red" for human eyes to see. The sky is blue because blue light gets deflected of off some of the gases in the air and dust particles. Sunsets are red because the sunlight has to go through more air to get to our eyes (skimming the surface of the globe) and all the blue and green light has been removed leaving the red and orange parts of the light. To the color of infrared, the carbon molecule reflects it or you could say it has the color of "infrared" much like the rest of the air has the color of blue. You might say "well that is fine then... it reflects the sun's infrared" BUT the sun only sends some infrared our way and most if it is visible. A unique thing about infrared is that everything produces infrared light. When your stove's electric element gets hot, it starts glowing red. This glow is a small portion of the more intense infrared light coming off that element that we cannot see. Our eyeballs absorb infrared light and thus for snakes to see infrared (so mammals and birds appear to shine to the snake) the snake needs special holes in it's face that focus the infrared light like a pin-hole camera instead of using a lens like normal eyes (which snakes also have but normal snake eyes, like our eyes, cannot conduct that infrared light). The sun shines on the planet, the planet heats up, the planet radiates infrared back out into space which is a good thing... BUT don't forget that the sky is the color of "infrared" when it has CO2 in it (and to a lesser extent, carbon monoxide... it has one oxygen instead of two but still has the same one carbon atom) and to a greater extent other carbon-based molecules like natural gas (made of one carbon atom and 4 hydrogen atoms and written CH4). So visible light comes in but infrared light does not shine back out because the sky is the color of infrared light (if we could see it) and reflecting that infrared light back down at us.

Scientists looking at the possible history of the fungus family figured that the development of wood caused a great change in the atmosphere because there was no fungus at the time to break down wood. Wood contains carbon atoms and nitrogen atoms so the atmosphere went from 20% oxygen to 30% oxygen (because nitrogen went from 80% down to 70% more specifically). Carbon dioxide was still being produced but not as much. The earth cooled some but not significantly due the lack of effect that nitrogen and oxygen have on the transmission of infrared light. Fungus developed to break down wood and the atmosphere returned to normal. Fertilizers usually involve a chemical similar to ammonia which is one nitrogen atoms and 3 hydrogen atoms. This shows how nitrogen is a significant portion of the atoms in trees. At this time of high oxygen, the globe was covered with dead tree trunks because when a tree died, it just laid there forever (or until fungus figured out how to break down wood).

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

a new form of cooling is starting to be used. A metal plate such as a metal roof is aimed at the night sky and it cools down more then the air would cool it. This is because outer space is cold and is not sending us infrared light. The only heating is from the infrared light from the hot earth reflecting off the CO2 and hitting that metal roof (which is why it does not get extremely cold). The planet Mercury has no atmosphere so it gets extremely hot on one side... extremely cold on the other side. This is from not having any atmosphere to send heat back down to the ground on the dark side of the planet.

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

As I noted, the increase in mass of the atmosphere would impact the heat loss, but only ever so slightly if it did not include a GHG component. Depending on the amount of increase it may not be an impact which can be measured above the current or even future noise level. Thus, only the theorectical increase could be calculated.

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

As I noted, the increase in mass of the atmosphere would impact the heat loss, but only ever so slightly if it did not include a GHG component. Depending on the amount of increase it may not be an impact which can be measured above the current or even future noise level. Thus, only the theorectical increase could be calculated.

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

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Pollution is not the solution