The thing that has always concerned me about “Man Made” global warming is the apparent negation of the second law of thermodynamics. Two German physicists agree and do some work to show why. H/T to the post at Small Dead Animals: There is No Greenhouse Effect: German physicists Gerhard Gerlich and Ralf D. Tscheuschner offered a paper in July of 2007 that argued that the theory of "greenhouse" earth defies the laws of physics.
The Paper: Falsification Of The Atmospheric CO2 Greenhouse Effects Within The Frame Of Physics: The atmospheric greenhouse effect, an idea that authors trace back to the traditional works of Fourier 1824, Tyndall 1861 and Arrhenius 1896 and is still supported in global climatology essentially describes a fictitious mechanism in which a planetary atmosphere acts as a heat pump driven by an environment that is radiatively interacting with but radiatively equilibrated to the atmospheric system. According to the second law of thermodynamics such a planetary machine can never exist. Nevertheless, in almost all texts of global climatology and in a widespread secondary literature it is taken for granted that such mechanism is real and stands on a firm scientific foundation. In this paper the popular conjecture is analyzed and the underlying physical principles are clarified. By showing that (a) there are no common physical laws between the warming phenomenon in glass houses and the fictitious atmospheric greenhouse effects, (b) there are no calculations to determine an average surface temperature of a planet, (c) the frequently mentioned difference of 33 C is a meaningless number calculated wrongly,(d) the formulas of cavity radiation are used inappropriately, (e) the assumption of a radiatively balance is unphysical, (f) thermal conductivity and friction must not be set to zero, the atmospheric greenhouse conjecture is falsified.
GreenNeck: Two words: Planet Venus.
Cal2: I think the article is saying 0.03% CO2 is insignificant compared to the 96% C02 content of Venus.
Otter: GreenNeck~ perhaps you will have also noticed that Venus is 26 million miles Closer to the sun? Venus also falls outside the 'lifezone' of our solar system. btw, the atmosphere of Mars is 95% CO2, do you know how warm a summer day gets there?
