Thanks to everyone who posted on my global warming questions. It confirmed my view that the science of global warming is somewhat more complicated than the simple explanations suggest. At some point I will collect together the links to resources, but I don't think that there is (yet) any resource on the web which takes the reader through every logical step of the argument but without being needlessly complex or difficult. The resources which go into detail have massively more than is logically required, and those which are aimed at a less 'technical' audience tend to skip over important logical steps - particularly the move involving the logarithm of CO2 concentration, which is not properly explained in any of the non-technical sources.
Wikipedia would be the ideal place for such a resource, but that has problems of its own (it seems to have a policy that the basic science should not be explained).
3 comments:
1 more link, which is a 'tutorial' through radiative physics
http://scienceofdoom.com/roadmap/atmospheric-radiation-and-the-greenhouse-effect/
Also on the same site covers water vapour + clouds feedback
http://scienceofdoom.com/2010/05/30/clouds-and-water-vapor-part-one/
Thank you. Part 3 includes the first clear explanation of why the IPCC logarithmic graph is not at odds with the Beer-Lambert law.
Strictly speaking, greenhouse gases can have a linear, quadratic or logarithmic effect depending on concentration, for any conceivable level of CO2 in the earth's atmosphere it will be a logarithmic effect
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