Richard Alley – The Biggest Control Knob: Carbon Dioxide in Earth’s Climate History

Posted on December 19, 2009 | 12 Comments

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12 Responses to Richard Alley – The Biggest Control Knob: Carbon Dioxide in Earth’s Climate History

  1. Ben Lawson | December 19, 2009 at 7:40 pm | Reply

    Excellent lecture! But he should still be fired for his crimes – using crappy PowerPoint fonts! :-)

  2. witsendnj | December 20, 2009 at 2:15 pm | Reply

    Seldom have I seen such dreadful news delivered with such a cheerful demeanor!

  3. caerbannog | December 21, 2009 at 12:32 am | Reply

    I posted a link to this lecture over at the San Diego Union Tribune on-line forum ( http://forums.signonsandiego.com/showthread.php?t=103074). Here’s the first response I got:


    It looks like caerbannog liked Alley’s sermon.

    One might note that he offers no insight into why anyone other than the warmers should think that CO2 in the atmosphere would make the surface temperature increase, he simply states that it is physics, which is incorrect. There is no basic science that suggests CO2 in the atmosphere will cause warming.

    Alley uses the models that presume CO2 causes warming to try to validate the notion that CO2 causes warming.

    Alley’s case isn’t convincing though, especially since he even states that there were CO2 increases centuries after temperature increases.

    Interest can also add to savings.

    BWD

  4. witsendnj | December 21, 2009 at 8:57 am | Reply

    Maybe Alley assumed his audience is familiar with the basic physics of the greenhouse effect and didn’t feel the need to explain something most 8 year olds can easily grasp?

  5. Nick | December 21, 2009 at 9:14 pm | Reply

    For those of us who don’t have time to investigate deeply the state of the physical science because we’re working on, say, the economics and public policy dimensions of the global warming problem, this kind of synthesis is extremely helpful.

  6. Greg Robie | December 21, 2009 at 9:15 pm | Reply

    Great talk about the “BIG” knob . . . and a good example of how a career focused on the dynamics of such a knob can blind one to knowing when a fine tuning knob is making all the difference (i.e. Arctic methane—framing for answer to last question).

  7. Anna Haynes | January 27, 2010 at 1:33 am | Reply

    Steve Easterbrook’s synopsis of the Alley AGU talk, for those short on time, is at
    http://www.easterbrook.ca/steve/?p=1121

    Also, Alley did a public outreach video for NSF on this – bit.ly/AlleyNSF

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  10. Thor | November 30, 2010 at 9:45 am | Reply

    Just have a look at the absorption spectrum for CO2. CO2, methane and water vapor absorbs in the infra red spectrum–radiation reflected as heat once solar radiation has struck earth´s surface. Water vapor absorbs more in absolute terms, but anthropogenic warming (CO2, methane, etc.) causes the otherwise stable concentration of water vapor to increase–a warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor.

  11. melty | December 18, 2010 at 1:21 am | Reply

    Thor: correct in all respects except one: the infra-red radiation is not “reflected as heat”, it is emitted. I don’t know why so few people seem to understand this.

  12. Thor | December 18, 2010 at 11:37 am | Reply

    melty: Yeah… Fair ’nuff.

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