In a detailed explanation, describe how Co2 blocks or reflects sunrays?

Question

If CO2 really causes it, explain in a very detailed explanation how Co2 reflects or block sunrays back into earth. Even if you have to go to into atomic structure detail.

Answer 1

CO2 absorbs certain wavelengths of light. This is an important point, because it absorbs only a small portion of the entire light spectrum. This is why adding more and more CO2 to the atmosphere does not have the desatrous effect the AGW loonies would like you to believe. It can only absorb so much heat from sunlight. Once it has absorbed this wavelength, adding more CO2 does not drastically effect global temp. As for molecular makeup, it is pretty straight forward, 1 carbon and 2 oxygen. As for oxygen, it is not a greenhouse gas. The primary greenhouse gas is water vapor. It contributes about 95% of the entire greenhouse effect. CO2 is another 3% and methane and other trace gases make up the remainder.

CO2 does not block the suns rays. It absorbs the wavelengths and then emits warmth as a longer wavelength. The following article is fairly straight forward, but with detail.

http://www.middlebury.net/op-ed/global-w...

Answer 2

CO2 is transparent to the major components of sunlight.  The sunlight reaches the earth's surface unimpeded by CO2.  When the sunlight warms the surface of the earth infra-red radiation tries to escape into space.  CO2 tends to block that energy thus trapping it in the atmosphere--so the theory goes, I'm told.

Without going into such detail(molecular structure), which may not yield much fruit, just accept the fact that certain gasses are transparent to visible light but not so transparent to the infra-red variety.  This can be shown experimentally in the lab.  H2O, CO2, methane (CH4), are such gasses.

Why it blocks it is not so important.  It just does.  It is simply the nature of the compounds under discussion.

Answer 3

Sunlight loses energy as it passes through the atmosphere. The lower energy light (heat) doesn't have enough left to get back out if it reflects off the oceans or an ice cap. Adding certain gases to the atmosphere thickens it so that more heat is trapped. Those gases are the same ones released by factories, power plants, cars, etc.  

Each element or compound can absorb energy over the full range of the spectrum.  It can emit energy only on a single frequency specific to the element or compound.  In the case of Carbon the emission frequencies fall in the near infrared range (commonly called "heat").  A Carbon 12 CO2 laser has a wavelength of 10600 nanometers and a Carbon 13 CO2 laser has a wavelength of 11100 nanometers.  For this reason carbon compounds like CO2 and Methane have a highly active role in the greenhouse effect.   In the atmosphere, water also plays a special role, in that it absorbs well on these frequencies, but emits poorly.  Water has extremely high absorption at this wavelength. A 30 micron thin layer of water will absorb 90% of CO2 laser radiation, and only 10% will pass through.

I hope this humble explanation sheds some light on the answer to your very erudite question.

Answer 4

Let me start off by saying we (my family and I) live 100% off of the grid and are completely self-sufficient with a 0% Carbon footprint. I believe this is the first step anyone can make “help the environment”. Once you convert your own life style to a greener more eco friendly route, you can start helping others.

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We definitely didn't start global warming, but we definitely do contribute to it now.

Natural gas (or Methane along with other thanes) for example, is completely a natural contributer to global warming and is derived pretty much the same way as oil. ie. Matter (animal, plant etc) decomposes over time resulting in a anaerobic (hope I spelled that right) decay of non-fossil organic material / gas (natural gas or methane).

One problem with global warming is that the concept is so vague in the minds of the people. The critical interpretation is basically how it’s explained in school and the news. However most of the public see global warming connected with the ozone and pollutants which cause harmful greenhouse gasses, etc. therefore investigating and fighting for things like alternative energy (ie. Solar, wind, hydrogen, ethanol, biodiesel, etc)

Greenhouse gases are real and do contribute to global warming. Think of the different gas layers like ozone (o3) that circumference the globe as the clear plastic on a greenhouse. Longer rays of light from the Sun go in and reflect off different thermal masses bouncing back and creating shorter lengths of energy that cannot exist the plastic barrier. These beams then just continue to bounce around inside the green house until they’re finally absorbed completely (some do escape but very few), thereby warming the greenhouse greatly even in cold temperatures.

Basically there are 2 ways that this reaction (or lack of) affects the planet. Global warming and global cooling.

1. as we add to the gases in the stratosphere, where the ozone layer is (Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, etc), we add to the plastic of the greenhouse, trapping more short wave length energy and heating the earth more.

2. as we deplete the ozone (with chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs), we allow more long wave length energy, which bounces back out to space without heating any thermal masses on earth, thereby cooling the planet.

It’s pretty easy to see the results..

Melting ice sheets & glaciers

Floods & droughts

Great hurricanes & cyclones

Seasonal extremes

Seasonal phenomena’s

Species extinction

New & resurgent diseases

There are many ways to stop both global warming and cooling from accruing or at least slow them down until we can discover a way to reverse it, but Stop burning fossil fuels is the biggest.

I currently own 2 converted h2 vehicles which run on 100% hydrogen and 1 EV (electric vehicle), not to mention our home is completely off the grid, using alternative energy (solar, wind, etc)

If you interested I offer several DIY alternative guides to walk you step by step threw Greener living, how to run your car on alternative fuels and being self-sufficient, at agua-luna com or

www agua-luna com

Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions if you’d like assistance in making your first self sufficient steps, I’m willing to walk you step by step threw the process. I’ve written several how-to DIY guides available at  www agua-luna com on the subject. I also offer online and on-site workshops, seminars and internships to help others help the environment.

Dan Martin

Alterative Energy / Sustainable Consultant, Living 100% on Alternative & Author of How One Simple Yet Incredibly Powerful Resource Is Transforming The Lives of Regular People From All Over The World... Instantly Elevating Their Income & Lowering Their Debt, While Saving The Environment by Using FREE ENERGY... All With Just One Click of A Mouse...For more info Visit:  

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Answer 5

Not sure about how the structure of the CO2 molecule causes the greenhouse effect, but the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased since the Industrial Age (with motors, steam engines, burning fossil fuels etc) and the CO2 forms a layer like a blanket which traps the warmth from the sun.  As the sunlight comes in through the atmosphere, it hits the earth and is reflected back off the earth's surface.  Once it hits the CO2 layer going back up, it is deflected back down towards the earth's surface.  It works like light in a greenhouse, where plants thrive inside a warm environment even if it's cold outside.  This is believed to be the root cause of global warming.

Answer 6

An easily understandable answer is provided here:

http://cdiac.ornl.gov/pns/faq.html

About 1/2 down the page you'll find these two questions:

Why do certain compounds, such as carbon dioxide, absorb and emit infrared energy?

What kinds of radiation pass through the atmosphere, and what kinds are absorbed?

Answer 7

It doesn't. It traps infrared radiation leaving the Earth and keeps it from radiating out into space. It does this because of the wavelength, other types of gases trap other wavelengths of radiation with water vapor being the main culprit by far.

The sunlight comes in as radiation, heats the Earth which in turn heats the atmosphere. But some of that heat is trapped inside the atmosphere by greenhouse gases. The Earth itself produces some heat due to it's molten radioactive core. This is greatly simplified but there are links to more detailed analyses.

Without gases trapping heat on Earth it would be at least 34C colder than it is now, making life as we know it impossible. CO2 is also essential for plant and marine plant life and despite worries that there is too much of it, we're not that far above the 'suffocation' level of plant life. At levels much below 300 ppm plants don't grow well, much lower and they don't grow at all. Which is why we've had such bountiful harvests in the past century.