how can co2 be a greenhouse gas. provable fact is co2 is heavier than air so it must be under the atmosphere?

Question

and not as in all the models i have seen in the upper atmosphere traping heat in causing the green house effect. as co2 is heavier than air and if it does as modern science tells us reflect heat surely it must actualy be reflecting heat away from the planet and not trraping it. i belive gravity is a constant so unless we are pumping co2 into the upper atmosphere how can it get there? aircraft do not fly high enough to escape the gravitational pull of the earth

true gases mix however greenhouse gases are way above atmospheric winds

and wouldn't it much more logical to put global warming down to the fact our magnetic shield is collapsing and the sun is in an active period and producing more heat

Answer 1

Gases Mix!

By this logic, the atmosphere would be in layers
* CO2 at the bottom
* O2 above that
* N2 above that
* H2O higher yet

Other gases would be at their appropriate levels. But indeed, the winds, rising hot air, thunderstorms, etc keep the gases pretty well mixed.

As for CO2 "reflecting heat", you have to be careful what you mean. CO2 actually ABSORBS infrared light. This warms the atmosphere. The warm atmosphere RE-EMITS infrared light. Some of this heads away from earth, but some heads back, causing "the greenhouse effect".

Yes, CO2 does block some "heat" (infrared light) from reaching the earth, but there is not much infrared coming in. There is much more trying to get away (radiated by a warm earth). So the CO2 mostly blocks OUTGOING infrared, not INCOMING infrared.


ADDED:
According to this link, the total energy from the sun does vary. However 1) the changes are about 0.1-0.2% over the course of a about a decade, 2) tend to go in cycles, and 3) at the moment seem to be heading back down slightly. None of this fits well with the degree of warming or the fairly constant increases.
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/SOLAR/IRRADIANCE/irrad.html

Perhaps magnetic shielding is a contributing factor. I don't know enough to comment. Perhaps you could do the research to see 1) to what extent it is happening and 2) what the resutls of such a change would be. Or just find an existing scientific report addressing these issues.

It is easy to come up with "perhaps this is the cause". The challenge is finding data and calculations to support your position.

With CO2, we know 1) there is more CO2 than a century ago and 2) more CO2 would be expected to cause warming and 3) warming has been observed. It forms a very neat package. You need to be able to present you alternate theories as cleanly if you want to overturn an existing theory. In fact, you need to show your hypothesis is BETTER than current theories if you want to win converts.

Answer 2

Carbon dioxide molecules are heavier than nitrogen and oxygen molecules, but they're not so heavy that they aren't well-mixed throughout the atmosphere. If there were no collisions between molecules in the atmosphere, then it might stratify into different layers, but that is not the case.The composition of the atmosphere is well-known and the amount of carbon dioxide as a function of height above the earth is taken into account in climate models. It is true that aircraft do not fly high enough to escape the gravitational pull of the earth--but since the range of the gravitational force is infinite neither does anything else in the universe! It is also completely irrelevant.

Answer 3

Your beliefs about gravity do not change reality.

However, even at the upper reaches of the atmosphere (100 kilometers up), the Earth's gravitational field is still strong, but not quite as strong as it is on the ground.

You have failed to take wind currents into account. CO2 is indeed a denser gas than air, but it's only a little denser. Wind is capable of transporting liquid water (much denser than air) high into the atmosphere (known as clouds), so it's more than capable of transporting CO2 (a bit denser than air) anywhere in the atmosphere. In fact, wind mixes the CO2 quite evenly.

Answer 4

Some of the CO2 scare is political science. It does trap heat which has to do with higher energy from the sun coming in while a slightly different energy coming from Earth is trapped. Winds are enough to mix it trough the air.

How can it be a pollutant if we breathe out CO2 and plants breathe in CO2 to make the oxygen we breathe in? If all CO2 were taken out of the air, then all plants would die and so would all people when the oxygen ran out. It may help warm the planet, but it is natural and about 96% of it is produced naturally and we can do nothing to stop it.

Answer 5

Winds do help mix the atmosphere to some extent, but even without wind, diffusion would cause the different components of the air to remain mixed.

Answer 6

On your same theme what about Ozone, the dictionary states it is a pungent form condensed oxygen found mainly at sea level so how come the ozone layer is in the stratosphere