NASA has released computer simulations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the world's air. The National Geographic magazine website allows you to look at it in all its glory; see "
Stunning NASA Visualization Reveals Secret Swirlings of Carbon Dioxide." CNET, calling it a "hypnotic video" and other media outlets have picked it up and
re-distributed it too. If you want to see it action and listen to it, just click on the video below.
In case you are wondering about the subtitle of the article "The new simulation tracks the invisible gas that's warming the planet," don't be surprised to have a lot of company, colorful swirls or not.
Colorful Swirls
The swirls you see on this computer animation are certainly pretty colorful but also pretty meaningless. To begin with, remember, it's a simulation or animation produced from a computer model. The IPCC (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has some 50 models of that kind - all requiring super-computers to run--with none of them having ever successfully modeled (much less predicted) the now 18-year-plus "warming pause". All these models are wrong.
More to the point though: What do the swirls show that isn't obvious? With most of the world's population living in the northern hemisphere and most of the world's consumption of carbon-based fuels also there, should it be a surprise to anyone to see more carbon dioxide in the air over the northern than the southern hemisphere?
False Claims
The narrative to the video is self-destroying the claims to the "global warming" theory of CO2. It claims (and shows) the highest concentrations of CO2 over the northern polar (Arctic) fringe of the simulation--in the depth of winter. Then in summer the CO2 in the northern air returns to normal levels due to photosynthesis converting it to biomass both on land and in the sea.
If the CO2 levels in the air had any "greenhouse gas" effect at all, should that then not be most noticeable in the Arctic in winter? Isn't CO2 supposed to act like a lid in a greenhouse? If that were to be true its claimed effect in the Arctic should be more apparent in winter than in summer!
The fact is that there is has not been any appreciable change in the
winter sea-ice extent in the Arctic since daily satellite-based observations have been recorded for about 40 years. Furthermore, based on 55 years of daily records by the
Danish Meteorological Institute there has been no significant change in the number of days above freezing at latitudes above 80º N. If anything, recent summers indicate a reduction rather than an increase in such "warm" days. So, you might ask, what is new?
The New Menace
What is really new in this video is the mention of an entirely different (in greenhouse terms) menace, namely carbon MONoxide (in chemical terms CO). Half way through the video, at time 1:32, it gets introduced as "being both harmful to the environment and to humans." However that part only lasts a few seconds before the narrative switches back to carbon DIoxide (in chemical terms CO2). Strangely though, the narrative claims to show a CO buildup in the atmosphere of the southern hemisphere but the color code at the bottom of the video screen indicates it also being more prevalent in the northern hemisphere.
Whatever the case about CO, let me assure you there is no need to worry about CO in the atmosphere either. Its concentration in the air is
less than 1/1000th of that of CO2 (around 400) or 0.0000001 parts per volume. Also, CO is readily converted to CO2 by natural processes.
Great Timing
NASA's new video certainly was released with the foresight of great timing. No doubt, you'll have noticed the recent "warming" with disdain. The current forecasts for the remainder of this week (Nov.20, 2014) call for temperatures all across the U.S. and Canada in the sub-freezing degrees. Looking at my outside thermometer and the hard-frozen precipitation on my car's windshield I'll have to conclude that they are telling the truth.
Despite the increase in atmospheric CO2, particularly over the northern hemisphere in winter, there hasn't been any global warming in the past 18 years. To the contrary, the earth has gotten colder. If you need any evidence on the ground, just visit the Buffalo, NY area that just had some swirlings of a different kind, like 6 ft. of snow.
In any event, the current bout of snow and cold temperatures on the continent are helping to make a mockery of NASA's "swirlings."
