Allison McAuliffe

Carbon Dioxides Cooling Effect

CITATIONS
"Carbon Dioxide Emissions." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 23 May 2013. "Causes of Climate Change." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 23 May 2013. Schreuder, H., and J. O'Sullivan. "New Discovery: NASA Study Proves Carbon Dioxide Cools Atmosphere." Principia Scientific International. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2013.

CITED SCIENTIST(S)
NASA's Langley Research Center Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) NASA's chief climatologist with NASA GISS, Dr James Hansen Principia Scientific International (PSI) greenhouse gas effect (GHE) critic, Alan Siddons

HYPOTHESIS
Does carbon dioxide warm the atmosphere like the widely accepted global warming theory accepts or does it actually cool the atmosphere?

SUMMARY
It been widely accepted that carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities and that this greenhouse gas contributes to the greenhouse effect, which is a process that is warming our atmosphere. In 2011, scientists are claiming that carbon dioxide actually made up 84% of all greenhouse gases through excessive uses of electricity, transportation, and industry. When sunlight reaches Earths surface, it can either be reflected back into space or absorbed by Earth. Once absorbed, the planet releases some of the energy back into the atmosphere as heat (also called infrared radiation). Greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide (CO2), absorb that energy and prevent the loss of heat to space; therefore, they trap this heat, making Earth warmer than it would otherwise be. This theory is nothing new, however, and many scientists have accepted this theory as truth and as an explanation to our warming climate. However, recent NASA measurements have challenged this climatologist accepted truth and have actually shown that carbon dioxide is cooling the atmosphere. This discovery was made by NASA's Langley Research Center. This center recorded data proving that greenhouse gases,

Allison McAuliffe like carbon dioxide, actually block up to 95 percent of harmful solar rays from reaching our planet; therefore, the gases are actually reducing the heating impact of the sun on earths surface. In their test they found that carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, two popular greenhouse gases, sent about 95% of the 26 billion kilowatt hours of energy from the sun right back into space. The data was collected by Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER). SABER monitors infrared emissions from Earths upper atmosphere. The scientists involved claim that the greenhouse effect theory was simply based on a bad interpretation of the laws of thermodynamics and because of that carbon dioxide has just always been accepted as a warming gas. This is important because if carbon dioxide is not warming our atmosphere then than a major part of global warming is flawed. However, we can still all see that our earth is, in fact, warming; therefore, it would then open up the problem to finding the actual cause of this and putting an end to it.

APES TOPICS
Air quality/pollution Atmosphere Global climate change

QUESTIONS
o What real proof is there to back up that carbon dioxide is cooling the earth other than the tests that were run? o What is changing earths climate to be warmer than if its not greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide?

RESPONSE
I think that instead of trying to prove other theories in mind with our research, we should strive to find the real root of the problem with the growing temperature our climate is facing in order to put an end to it. I do believe that the theory of global warming is correct. I think that we are the root of many things that have caused global warming also; however, I also think that if no human life had ever lived here and put tons of large smoke stacks releasing carbon emissions, then the earth still would be experiencing a warming effect. Granted, this warming effect would be a lot less drastic, but, nevertheless, I hypothesize that there still would be warming temperatures.

Allison McAuliffe When the article defends carbon dioxide by saying that it actually blocks out the suns rays, I cant help but wonder if they really weighed out the pros and cons. If NASA were to assume that carbon dioxide traps heat, but they were to also assume their hypothesis that it blocks out rays I wonder which one would do the most good for our planet or if anybody even thought of testing this. While it may be very possible that NASA is correct in their hypothesis that carbon dioxide protects us from the rays, is that enough reason to allow carbon emissions to go on if carbon dioxide is, in fact, still trapping heat? Also, what does this do to our air quality? And how would this affect human health? While this article never really answers any of the endless questions you may have after reading it, I really like this article because it gets me thinking about many things in science that I have never thought about before and that is one of the reasons why I choose it. This research does not really expand our current knowledge because nothing was discovered for sure. All of this science in this article is based off of one set of data and a hypothesis made by NASA off of that data; however, it does show us that nothing should ever just be automatically assumed in science because it goes along with a widely accepted theory. In this case, carbon dioxide was simply accepted by all to be a warming gas. In fact, when I hear the gas carbon dioxide that is exactly what I think as well; however, now this research has shown us that its possible that carbon dioxide is exactly the opposite to what we thought it was, a cooling gas. Although this study may be completely bogus and although I dont even believe that this study is true, I choose it because it was interesting and something that contrasted the way I normally view things. I dont think that we will ever really know if the theory of global warming is true or if carbon dioxide cools or heats, but thats the beauty of science. I like to think of the issue proposed in this article as an ongoing experiment thats going on in real life and although this theory is not supported very well with evidence and the global warming theory is, it is still interesting to hear the views of the other side and to hear new hypotheses.