ot greta thunberg

[Muchthemillersson]

'You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,' climate activist Greta Thunberg has told world leaders at the 2019 UN climate action summit in New York. In an emotionally charged speech, she accused them of ignoring the science behind the climate crisis, saying: 'We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth - how dare you!'

Spot on Miss Thunberg. Her generation will probably end up having to try to sort this mess out aided by a few others who do actually care about the outcome. I hope its not too late for them. I am intrigued how this is gonna pan out and realise I probably will never find out yet wish at least i could see the beginnings of a happy ending. With what I know about how the world operates I have no confidence that it will.

The science says that the carbon dioxide particles in the air reflect radiated heat from Earth's surface back into the Earth's atmosphere (the greenhouse effect). This simple theory ignores the fact that each molecule of carbon dioxide reflects back into space an equal and opposite amount of radiated heat from the sun - the real source of global warming.

The number of carbon dioxide particles in the air is miniscule compared to the number of atoms of oxygen and nitrogen and molecules of water vapour which make up the vast majority of the content of the atmosphere.

The real 'greenhouse gas' component in the air is water vapour. I remember our geography teacher Fred Kemp describing it as like a blanket when you are in bed. He was talking about water vapour in its natural form of clouds.

Of course, that is how it works at night, but in daytime the clouds reflect back into the atmosphere far more heat from the sun than they reflect back to the Earth's surface. But think about how much water vapour is in the atmosphere compared with carbon dioxide.

Plants need carbon dioxide to grow. Cutting back the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will reduce crop yields at a time when we need to increase yields to feed the growing human population every one of whom exhales a considerable amount of carbon dioxide every year. I can see the answer formulating in some people's minds!