On the Physical Chemistry of the Greenhouse Effect

Abstract

In the present, a looming catastrophe is feared due to climate change. People are looking for ways to prevent the anticipated warming of the climate. The primary approach promoted is the reduction of carbon dioxide, CO2, emissions from human activities. This would require a major transformation of existing ways of life and production. There are legitimate doubts about the reasoning that human-generated CO2 is the main cause of global warming. We examined the physico-chemical properties of CO2 and the so-called greenhouse gases to determine their influence on the heat exchange between the Earth's atmosphere and space. Their role as converters of infrared radiation from the sun into heat is a fact; conversely, they are equally indispensable as transmitters of heat from the Earth's atmosphere into infrared radia-tion to balance the Earth's radiation equilibrium. The balances of CO2 exchange with the plant world and the oceans, in comparison with anthropogenic emissions, are critically assessed. The anthropogenic energy flow is four orders of magnitude smaller than that of daily solar radiation. The planetary regulatory system of ice ages and warm periods, which has been operating for hundreds of thousands of years, is being discussed. It must be taken into account in the climate discussion of the past centuries. The CO2 as the driving force in the 
CO2-T correlation is being questioned.