Atmospheric Emission: Climate Change, CO2 & Quantum Chemistry

[atlstroke]

A friend is a quantum chemist. He is in agreement that climate change is bad (he feels the primary problems with CO2 is ocean acidification).

Anyway he states there is no credible research showing that atmospheric CO2 re-emits radiation to the planet. His belief is that the intersection of IR flux and distance between CO2 atoms does not allow for significant interaction. He also is of the opinion that the increased energy transferred to the CO2 would heat the atmosphere more at the upper levels which is not the case.

So I have read some information online and I get the impression that the measurement of incoming radiation has too much long wavelength radiation to be accounted for by solar radiation without emission from CO2. Any comment on this ?

He is also of the opinion that the concentration of water in the air has a far greater greenhouse effect and overwhelms any produced by CO2.

Can anyone point me to information that would be informative to someone who calculates orbital structures for a living? Cant denie I would like to win the argument, but its also good to have solid reasoning behind your beliefs.

Thanks

 

[D H]

Currently, global warming is a banned topic at this site. This thread is closed.

That said, your friend should read the scientific literature rather than goofy web sites.