Is CO2 a greenhouse gas?

Yes, CO2 is a greenhouse gas. Also, Venus's atmosphere is a lot thicker than ours (i.e. higher pressure). The earth has 0.03% CO2 and Venus has 97%. The two main gasses on earth are oxygen and nitrogen which are not greenhouse gasses. Wator vapour on earth is actually most abundant greenhouse gas by far.

So yes, Venus has a mega greenhouse effect and that's why it's so hot.

I have been busy for a while but having participated in the experiments this discussion is based on I am totally surprised at the rank ignorance about co2 and how it performs as a gas, solid and liquid. First co2 is a gas above 0 centigrade unless you can get it to over 150 psi where it can become a liquid. This liquid/gas phase change under pressure is what makes it a great refrigerant and why the financial backer of the AGW movement is willing to spend so much money to suppress its use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide#As_ref...

Oh and for the information of all co2 absorbs humidity in the air if it is present just as easy as water absorbs co2. It is very easy to tell that most if not all of those claiming to be science or engineering persons because of their complete lack of basic knowledge on the subject. As far as I can see the only science many of the warmers have ever had is watching AIT a half dozen or so times until they had it memorized.

Why were James and Charles so certain up front that there was a problem with the science in AGW, they both have done refrigeration work, James in automotive and Charles in industrial refrigeration. And yes Chris humidity is a major problem when working with any and all refrigerants because for any gas to work it has to be able to be humidified. But to keep refrigeration systems work they have to be completely dehumidified. This is why the gas as delivered is guaranteed by the maker to be free from humidity. This is why the systems all contain a receiver/dryer equipped with a desiccant to absorb and humidity that get into the system..

Just how many refrigeration mechanics do you want us to turn loose on this forum to tell the truth about co2 and how it works in the real world. From discussions I have had alone I could get a couple of hundred and James and Charles know a lot more than I do for sure. If any of you want an education about co2 that is factual and testable we are willing because fantasy should never be taught as science and that is what all of you are doing.

I believe that Mars is a better example of a greenhouse gas moderating a planets temperature. Mars' atmosphere is 95% CO2 with a diurnal temperature range from -89 to -31 C. It does this with a solar irradiance of only 589.2 W/m2. It's atmosphere is dry and has no appreciable cloud influence. Without the greenhouse effect from CO2, the night time temperature would be close to the dark side of Mercury -184.4 C.. The atmosphere should loose enough heat at night that CO2 ought be precipitating out of the atmosphere each Martian night, but it doesn't get that cold.

CO2 is a greenhouse gas, but so is water vapor. Water vapor is 270 times more potent that CO2. Water vapor is 99.5% of the earth's atmosphere.

Co2 is a greenhouse gas there is no doubt about that at all

Ben O

As following space research is a hobby, I didn't really have to look this up but I certainly remember talk of greenhouse effect related to Venus a long time before 2005

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleUR...

Please note the date of this paper and the title, 1988 pre dates the IPCCs first assessment report by 2 years, Al Gore being VP by 5 years. Actually with a submission date of March 1987 the paper pre dates the IPCC itself.

I think you will be hard pressed to find a skeptic who does not believe that co2 is a greenhouse gas, and that adding co2 in the atmosphere should cause some warming. It is all a matter of degree, will it be half a degree, or will it be five degrees?

But we all know that adding co2 without any feedbacks will only cause minor warming. It is the feedbacks that is the contention of skeptics. You can read a good explanation here:

http://www.drroyspencer.com/global-warming-101/

CO2 has an absorption band in the thermal infrared spectrum, so it is a greenhouse gas. Without either it or water vapor the Earth would turn into a giant snowball.

Sure is. Straightforward spectroscopy shows that carbon dioxide absorbs infrared largely at 15 microns and less importantly at around 2.7 and 4 microns. This constitutes around 12% of the greenhouse effect of the whole atmosphere, with water being the dominant factor at around 88%. Obviously when performing the experiment for carbon dioxide, water vapour is excluded, and vice versa, so that the properties of the two gases can be distinguished from each other.

For the record, James E, you cannot "saturate CO2 with humidity".

CO2 does not form an hydrous compound. Even if it did, this compound by a solid, because the water needs to be locked into the crystalline frame of the other chemical so we'd have dry/wet ice balls falling on us if your claim were truth.

The answer is yes. The example of other planets to me is irrelevant since we understand the physics of how the greenhouse effect works.

Ben O, Carl Sagan proposed the runaway greenhouse effect on venus. He died in 1996. Opps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan