By Gary Novak
The claim that greenhouse gases add heat to the atmosphere hinges upon the Stephan-Boltzmann constant. Logic shows that the claims are absurd. The Stephan-Boltzmann constant quantifies how much radiant heat is given off by a surface at a particular temperature. Simple observations indicate that 10-20 times too much radiation is projected by the Stephan-Boltzmann constant. Without such excessive radiation, the claimed greenhouse effect would not exist. Since numerous other lines of logic also show that the greenhouse effect cannot exist, they show the absurdity of the quantities produced by the Stephan-Boltzmann constant.
The Stephan-Boltzmann constant indicates that so much radiation is given off by the surface of the earth that it would give up all energy from the sun at an absurdly low temperature of -18°C (0°F), if it all radiated into space. But since the average temperature of the earth's surface is 15°C (59°F), only greenhouse gases could add the extra heat needed to get to present surface temperatures, according to global warming alarmists.
If however, the Stefan-Boltzmann constant were reduced to one twentieth, at 15°C (59°F) only about 5-10% of the heat leaving the earth's surface would be radiation, while the remainder would leave as conduction, convection and evaporation, which is more in line with what is really happening. No greenhouse gas effect would be involved.
With the Stephan-Boltzmann constant used by climatologists, the surface of the earth must be giving off 390 watts per square meter of radiation at its average temperature of 15°C (59°F). To get their numbers to balance, climatologists have only 24 W/m² leaving the surface by conduction and convection. That's 6% as much conduction and convection as radiation, even though the earth's surface has a lot of moving air across it. If such conditions really existed, cooling fans would never be used. To get a 6% increase in cooling? That's not what fans do. Fans remove about 10-20 times as much heat as radiation alone would.
Alarmist climatologists were forced to state such absurd conditions to balance equations. To account for the extremely high radiation indicated by the Stephan-Boltzmann constant, there had to be a lot of radiation interacting with the earth's surface-specifically 324 W/m² going from the atmosphere back to the surface. This amount left almost nothing for conduction, convection and evaporation. The 390 being emitted from the surface included 40 going into space and 350 going into the atmosphere. The 324 coming back out of the atmosphere and onto the surface had to be less than the 350 going in. As a result, the 324 left almost no space for conduction, convection and evaporation, because most of it had to be used to create the 390.
In other words, balancing ridiculous numbers was more important to alarmist climatologists than a credible logic. Throughout the global warming issue, logic is sacrificed to absurd claims and fake mathematics including falsified data.
It means physicists made up the Stephan-Boltzmann constant off the top of their heads with no relationship to objective reality. It rationalizes fake math and numbers for greenhouse gases but contradicts logic and evidence.
Gary Novak
Independent Scientist