Climate Change

[Deesse23]

And of course heat energy and light are reflected back into space from "cold places".  That's because of the polar ice has a high albedo:

While this is correct, it is not the reason why CO2 is able to "reflect" IR radiation. It is simply because its not a "reflection" in the common sense, like a solid mirror would reflect light(rays) from its surface back to the direction where the light originated.

What this is about is the ability of (gaseous) matter to absorb and emit radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum. CO2, like any other gas isnt able to reflect anything at most wavelenths, thats why the atmosphere is transparent to visible light and also to most other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum (although, astronomers, particularly the ones with IR or UV telescopes will tell you otherwise. Hence the need for satellites, but i am digressing).

Below you see the absorption specrum of CO2 according to the molecules´ "mechanical" properties and the very narrow frequencies at which it "likes" to oscillate. If you "feed" the molecule with any of those wavelengths (like pointing an IR source at it), it will absorb the energy completely(!), because CO2 is in resonance with the incoming radiation. Of particular interest is the 15µm band. Why? Because 15µm corresponds to the peak ratiation of a black body at 15C. Guess what the average surface temperature of Earth is? .....Right!


Now the sun is a black body with 6000k and a peak wavelenght of 555mn (which corresponds to green light). CO2 does not absorb any of this.

Now consider such CO2 molecules floating happily around in the atmoshphere. They are transparent to all the sunlight emitted at visible wavelenths, but absorb the 15µm black body IR radiation from Earth, and they are pretty damn efficient at that. Luckily there is ony a few ppm (ca. 300) of them around. Pheww! Now, what happens after those CO2 molecules have absorbed some IR from earth? Well they can emit radition back into the atmoshpere*, and since their physical property has not changed they will emit IR at 15µm into all directions, including back to the surface.
So, while absorbing IR radition from the surface they will emit a part of this radiation back to earth, at IR wavelenths, thus heating up where we surface dwellers live. Thats why pop science uses the term "reflect" when you read and hear about greenhouse effect: Some of what is radiated comed back to surface.

Its completely irrelevant what temperature the atmospere has (0c, 15C, 70C, -70C). CO2 is able to absorb and emit radiation due to its molecular structure, not due to its temperature, which Delta would have learned, if he had taken my advice to take some basic physics classes, which i suppose he didnt.

I don't obviously agree that the greenhouse model is useful either, because it posits a solid glass roof which does not exist and because CO2 simply does not reflect light the way they say and cannot return heat energy from a cold place to a warmer place.

 
Noone posits this but strawmanning ignoramuses who dont understand basic physics, like you.


*actually there is a second option: they collide with other molecules and can "warm them up" with the heat then dissipating into outer space, but this effect is negligible in the lower atmosphere due to "local thermal equilibrium", aka. air is so dense that they collide all the time, exchanging energy all the time, so on a local level they are in thermal equilibrium, which leaves them able to radiate back any IR radiation they just absorbed (from earth). In the upper (very thin!) atmosphere CO2 and other greenhouse gasses actually help cooling because of this effect!


tl;dr:
With his "solid glass roof" and other shit like "cold CO2 cant heat up anything", Delta is not even wrong.....like usual.

P.S.: what i just desribed is verified by countless measurements made with satellites. Good luck in denying that.