This image of northwestern African captures the curvature of the Earth and shows its atmosphere. By NASA

Despite what you’ve heard and read, there is no consensus among the world’s atmospheric scientists about the causes of global warming. Nevertheless, politicians ignore this lack of consensus and they justify their proposed actions based upon their own politically sponsored science. They don’t claim to understand this science but they still use it for their own purposes.

The US and several other countries of the world may agree on reducing future emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the distant future. But therein lies the critical question: what is carbon dioxide’s role in climate change?

Politically sponsored arguments about climate change focus on anthropogenic carbon dioxide as if it were different or separable from natural carbon dioxide. It isn’t, but it suits the promoters’ political argument and politically sponsored scientists to make it sound as though it is.

Carbon dioxide is a specific molecule in the earth’s atmosphere that occurs in trace abundance. The concentration of carbon dioxide has varied in history. During the Pleistocene and Holocene (from about 2.6 million years ago, to about 12,000 years ago), it averaged about 190 parts per million. During the Ordovician (about 450 million years ago) it was as high as 4,400 ppm. And yet, temperatures have remained in a narrow – and habitable range -- for all of that time. The present UN-accepted level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 371ppm. Even extreme alarmists about climate change aren’t extrapolating temperature levels with carbon dioxide concentrations above 500 ppm.

The term “greenhouse gas” was invented to characterize physics that doesn’t occur in nature. Capping and sequestering carbon dioxide from smokestacks, then piping and pumping it underground is technically challenging. Energy companies will do so at the customer’s expense. It won’t be cheap. Estimated costs of doing so are in the billions. This would be a government-subsidized bonanza for everyone involved.

By my calculations, carbon dioxide’s total heat-trapping capacity in the atmosphere is almost zero. Its capacity is over 1 million times less than that of the oceans. The oceans have the thermal inertia that has been incorrectly attributed to the greenhouse gas mechanism. The earth’s heat is actually stored in the most likely place, its oceans.

Greenhouse gasses are alarming only if you don’t understand (or conceal) the governing physics and disallow the Earth’s climatic history. You don’t have to look too closely to recognize the obvious limitations of politically sponsored science.

These are self-imposed data limitations, probably initially decided upon by committee. They do not however, limit science, which is embodied in the laws of physics.

Phil Holbrook has been a research scientist for major subsurface operating and service companies for over 25 years. He can be reached at phil@GlobalWarmingCycles.info