[meteorite-list] Cosmic Dust in Terrestrial Ice ENDING

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Aug 5 16:20:21 2006
Message-ID: <002901c6b8cc$8d4b4f80$2a7f4b44_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi,

    Thanks to a defective mouse gone click-crazy, my post got
sent before it was finished. It ended in mid-sentence:

> And, for Rob Matson, I just want to point out, an ice age is
> what happenes when you...

and if I'd finished it, would have read:

> And, for Rob Matson, I just want to point out that an ice
> age is what happens when you control DHMO pollution!

    Yes, that nasty "greenhouse gas," DHMO is sequestered
very nicely in an ice age.
    I understand that "global warming" scientists are still trying to
decide whether the role of DHMO is to have a net warming or a
net cooling effect. DHMO, like carbon dioxide, has absorption
bands for IR, hence heats the atmosphere, but DHMO clouds
increase the planetary albedo and reflect incoming radiation,
hence cool the planet. Which effect is strongest, warming or
cooling? They puzzle over their computer models.
    Well, one thing an ice age has is clear bright cloudless skies
and very dry air. There's no doubt about that. Both warming
and cooling effects of DHMO are reduced, but what is the
proportionality coefficient?
    Less atmospheric DHMO = cold world. Likely, more DHMO
= warm world. Of course, it's a feedback cycle and very complex,
yada, yada. But geological history is a grand laboratory notebook
of experiments we would never want to perform. Better to just
look'em up in the book.
    So, it's probably true that DHMO is a "dangerous" greenhouse
gas. It's still better than an ice age...


Sterling K. Webb
Received on Sat 05 Aug 2006 04:20:10 PM PDT