The Thermodynamics of Climate Change

Abstract

When you stand in sunlight, you feel hot, but when you stand outside at night, you feel cool, even on a warm night. Why? Because Sun emits ultraviolet radiation that is hot enough to burn your skin, while Earth emits infrared radiation that is, on average, 21°C cooler than your body. Computer models based on greenhouse-gas theory have this backward. They calculate that Earth is heated more by its own infrared radiation than by Sun's ultraviolet radiation. Your personal experience strongly suggests that these models are wrong. In this paper we show that thermal energy consists of the frequencies and amplitudes of oscillation of all the degrees of freedom of all the bonds that hold matter together. These frequencies and amplitudes of oscillation on the surface of matter transmit thermal energy through air and space as electromagnetic radiation. Climate models assume that electromagnetic radiation (EMR) travels as waves through space, but that assumption is unwarranted because the physical properties of EMR and mechanical waves in matter are very different. Observations of climate change can be explained quite clearly by ozone depletion. Ozone absorbs ultraviolet radiation from Sun, warming the ozone layer 20 to 30 km above Earth's surface. When there is less ozone, more of this hot ultraviolet radiation is observed to reach Earth's surface, warming Earth instead of the ozone layer.