Upcoming Article Preview: Why CO₂ Cannot Warm the Atmosphere or Earth

• The Kinetic Theory of Gases states that average kinetic energy of gas molecules is directly proportional to the absolute temperature in Kelvin, so CO2 has the same kinetic energy as the other adjacent gases (nitrogen and oxygen) at a given temperature. At 23 C, the average Kinetic Energy ≈ 6.12×10−21 Joules. That average kinetic energy includes the CO2 infrared absorptions derived from the Earth’s Black Body emissions (mostly 15 micron wavelength).

• A CO2 molecule can emit the absorbed Earth Black Body infrared energy in 2 ways: kinetic transfer by collisions and/or a pure photonic emission (E=hc/lambda). However, the chances of a perfect CO2 photonic emission are vanishingly small in most of the troposphere because that energy is mostly transferred by lossy collisions to close proximity nitrogen and oxygen molecules.

• Per the above, almost all CO2 energies from the Earth’s far-infrared heat are transferred to adjacent molecules via lossy collisions vs. perfect photonic emissions. Per the Second Law of Thermodynamics, heat moves from hot to cold, therefore an equivalent energy or colder energy CO2 cannot transfer it’s infrared energy and raise the temperature of warmer adjacent kinetically active molecules, notwithstanding that CO2 is a dilute gas at 400 ppm, or 400 in a million.

• Free and unimpeded photonic emissions of CO2 do occur at the upper reaches of the atmosphere, because there are less nitrogen and oxygen atoms to collide with. These CO2 heat emissions spontaneouly flow into colder outer space, because heat moves from warmer to colder per the Second Law of Thermodynamics.