[ExI] Global Temperatures to Decrease

[spike]

> ... On Behalf Of Damien Broderick
... 
> http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/stefan.html ) 
> >which causes the earth to radiate heat into space as a 
> >function of the fourth power of the temperature...
> 
> And yet, strangely, this law is apparently unknown on Venus.
> 
> What am I missing? (Yeah, it's closer to the Sun; and?)
> 
> Damien Broderick

Ja, you didn't miss anything, the radiation law is well known on Venus.  It
is closer to the sun, and the energy received varies as the square of the
distance, so about .7 AU translates into durn near twice the solar energy.
The very thick atmosphere there does trap a lot of energy.  The atmospheres
on the planets are not directly comparable  (93 bars vs 1 bar).

In any case I don't think the global warming crowd is suggesting a mechanism
for runaway warming thru increased amount of atmosphere, or if so that this
notion has been promoted recently.  I can imagine Sagan's nuclear winter
notion however.  That was said to have been overstated, but I don't know
where the climate groksters are thinking on that matter today.

This I will do: go off and study a couple weeks on the internet before
posting excessively on the topic.

spike