{"id":286977,"date":"2023-11-07T13:26:11","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T12:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=286977"},"modified":"2023-11-07T13:26:14","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T12:26:14","slug":"new-wholistic-paradigm-of-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=286977","title":{"rendered":"New Wholistic Paradigm of Climate\u00a0Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climate of the Earth is driven by the uneven solar heating of the surface of the Earth and the movements of the excess heat in the tropics towards the cooler polar regions, primarily by the movements of ocean currents, modified by the movements of air masses.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Science Matters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Ron Clutz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A recent paper in the journal Atmosphere draws together contemporary findings into a new and wholistic paradigm for the workings of earth\u2019s climate system.\u00a0 Stuart Harris published\u00a0Comparison of Recently Proposed Causes of Climate Change<\/strong><\/a>. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

This paper compares the ideas contained in the main papers published on climate change since World War II<\/strong> to arrive at a suggested consensus of our present knowledge regarding climatic changes and their causes.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atmospheric carbon dioxide is only suggested as a cause in one theory<\/strong>, which, despite its wide acceptance by Politicians, the media, and the Public, ignores the findings in other studies,<\/strong> including the ideas found in the Milankovitch Cycles. It also does not explain<\/strong> the well-known NASA map of the changes<\/strong> between the global 1951\u20131978 and the 2010\u20132019 mean annual temperatures.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other theories by Oceanographers, Earth scientists, and Geographers fit together<\/strong> to indicate that the variations in climate are the result of differential solar heating of the Earth<\/strong>, resulting in a series of processes redistributing the heat<\/strong> to produce a more uniform range of climates around the surface of the Earth. Key factors<\/strong> are the shape of the Earth and the Milankovitch Cycles, the distribution of land and water bodies, the differences between heating land and water, ocean currents and gateways, air masses, and hurricanes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Low atmospheric carbon dioxide levels during cold events<\/strong> could result in too little of this gas to support photosynthesis in plants, resulting in the extermination of most life on Earth as we know it. The 23 ka Milankovitch cycle has begun to reduce the winter insolation<\/strong> received at the surface of the atmosphere in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere starting in 2020. This results in extreme weather<\/strong> as the winter insolation reaching the surface of the atmosphere in the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere decreases while the summer air temperatures increase. It heralds the start of the next glaciation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A brief outline is given of some of the\u00a0climatic changes and consequences<\/strong>\u00a0that may be\u00a0expected in western Canada during the next 11.5 ka.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussion<\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

To make progress in Climatology, it has been shown that a good, reliable database of the constituent properties of the climate is necessary<\/strong> to obtain a reasonable average for that time slice. The difficulty is coping with the tremendous variation in conditions over the entire Earth at all time scales<\/strong>. The data should also be complete and obtained by a consistent method of measurement for all stations. Ideally, there should be no breaks in the data, although this is not usually achieved<\/strong>. Changes in methodology, equipment, and storage of large volumes of data have been major problems. As a result, most scientists studying the subject work with models of meteorology and weather forecasting.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. New Data on the Mechanism of Global Warming<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is now known that\u00a0solar radiation supplies more than 99.95% of the total energy driving the world\u2019s climate [7].<\/strong>\u00a0The fact that the\u00a0bulk of the solar radiation arrives<\/strong>\u00a0on the surface of the Earth along the\u00a0zone between the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer,<\/strong>\u00a0decreasing towards the Poles, results in a tremendous imbalance of initial heat distribution<\/strong>\u00a0around the globe. The amount of solar heating at the polar latitudes throughout the year varies greatly, with the\u00a0polar latitudes receiving considerably more solar energy in the summer than in the winter,<\/strong>\u00a0when they receive no solar heat at all. As a result, in the winter hemisphere, the\u00a0difference in solar heating between the equator and that pole is very large<\/strong>. This causes the large-scale circulation patterns observed in the atmosphere in the northern hemisphere. The difference in solar heating between day and night also\u00a0drives the strong diurnal cycle<\/strong>\u00a0of surface temperature over land.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2.1. Thermal Properties of the Earth\u2019s Surface<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A total of 70% of the Earth\u2019s surface consists of water,<\/strong> with the remainder being land (rock, soil, or ice). The albedo of ice ranges from 0.5 to 0.7, so ice- and snow-covered surfaces reflect<\/strong> much of the incoming solar radiation back into space. Water has a very high heat capacity (4.187 mJ\/m3 K), so it can store or transport large quantities of heat in a given volume of water<\/strong> [8]. In addition, it absorbs over five times as much heat as soil or rock since it is translucent [9,10]. Currents, convection, and wave action mix the water, whereas transmission into a rock or sediment must be by conduction. Reradiation only occurs in the surface layer (water or land).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.2. Transport of Heat towards the Poles<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dry air has a low heat capacity, but\u00a0air can carry moisture in the form of water vapor, water droplets, or snow.<\/strong>\u00a0Where water droplets are involved, the quantity of water carried can be\u00a0enormous in Monsoons and Hurricanes.<\/strong>\u00a0Accordingly,\u00a0warm ocean currents and Hurricanes are the main carriers of heat<\/strong>\u00a0from the Tropics towards the polar regions [8]. There can also be \u201crivers of water\u201d carried to land areas by Monsoons in subtropical areas. The\u00a0warm ocean currents<\/strong>\u00a0carry large quantities of heat towards the Poles but are\u00a0constrained by the distribution of land and water (Figure 1).<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 1. Distribution of cold and warm currents around the world [11]. Note that the warm currents are prevented from warming Antarctica by the cold Antarctic Circumpolar current, whereas the warm Gulf Stream penetrates northward into the North Atlantic Subarctic waters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

2.3. Sources of Cold Air Masses<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0primary source<\/strong>\u00a0of old, dense Arctic Air is in the\u00a0interior valleys of the mountains in Northern Siberia,<\/strong>\u00a0where the coldest air temperatures commonly exceed \u221265 \u00b0C in winter [12]. They are partly fed by cold air drainage from Tibet flowing down its northern slope to the Hexi Corridor, and similar cold temperatures have been recorded from Fort Nelson, British Columbia [14], and from the high mountains in Utah. The\u00a0cold Siberian air moves eastward along three main paths<\/strong>\u00a0(Figure 2) and results in several different\u00a0patterns of ice caps during the Wisconsin glaciation in North America<\/strong>. Path I is mainly used during the initial growth of the ice sheets and for changing Arctic air to Subtropical air, bringing about deglaciation of the western ice sheets during the retreat of the ice from its maximum glacial extent and the beginning of the subsequent Interglacial event.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 2. Map showing the distribution of permafrost in the Arctic together with the mean surface air January isotherms (\u00b0C) and the adjacent warm and cold currents [13]. Note the three main paths (I to III) taken by the Arctic air as it moves from Siberia to northern Canada and the positions of the main warm ocean currents bringing heat from the Tropics.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.4. Sources of Warm Air Masses<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over oceans<\/strong>, this is primarily centered in the zone of Intertropical Convergence<\/strong> between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, where the sun is overhead for part of the year [10] (Figure 1). These are the main sources of the warm ocean currents that transfer heat northward in the northern hemisphere from the main hot centers of the oceans. Overheating of the tropical waters also results in onshore Monsoon events<\/strong> and \u201crivers of rain\u201d coming northeastward from the Indian Ocean and the Central Pacific Ocean that bring large quantities of moisture to Subtropical areas such as India and southwestern North America.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For large areas of land, warm air masses originate where large dry deserts exist,<\/strong> such as the Sahara Desert in Africa, the Mohave Desert in Arizona, North America, or the Interior of Australia. The effects of these expand and contract as the sun changes position during the year<\/strong> and can bring drought conditions to southeast Africa and southern Europe.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.5. Effects of Humans on Climate Change<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IPCC argues that carbon dioxide coming from industrial plants controls the air temperature<\/strong> [16,17] (see Section 3.5). Certainly, deforestation, logging, agriculture, and urbanization have altered the albedo on land<\/strong>, but these changes do not<\/strong> produce sufficiently large temperature changes to be significant when compared with the quantity of solar radiation<\/strong> reaching the surface of the Earth. They may<\/strong>, however, cause substantial changes in precipitation,<\/strong> as in the case of Costa Rica, where deforestation of 85% of the rain forest resulted in a reduction in precipitation of c.30%. There is a marked difference between the warming of cities<\/strong> by the heat island effect and the rural areas<\/strong> of the northern hemisphere, which have not shown marked warming during the last 10 years [18,19,20,21].<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.2. Identification of Cold Events in the Oceans<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the most important evidence for climatic changes has been found by Oceanographers.<\/strong> These include fluctuations in sea temperatures in the deep-sea<\/strong> cores and evidence for the transport of solar heat<\/strong> from the equatorial areas by warm currents in the seas and by hurricanes<\/strong>, as well as by deep thermohaline currents.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.3. Fluctuations in Sea Temperatures Measured by \u03b4 O18 in Foraminifera<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shackleton was the first to report numerous\u00a0alternating warm and cool assemblages of layers<\/strong>\u00a0from deep sea cores in the Atlantic Ocean. Subsequent work showed that there were over 100 such fluctuations in the last 3.3 Ma B.P., and these became more marked in the upper layers of the cores, while the amplitude of temperature fluctuations increased towards the sediment surface (Figure 3) [28,29,30,31,32]. They showed\u00a0a progressive cooling of the North Atlantic Ocean beginning about 3.5 Ma<\/strong>\u00a0B.P. [27]. However, the frequency of the cold peaks is much greater than the 41 ka calculated by\u00a0Milankovitch<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0appears to be controlled by his 23 ka precession cycle<\/strong>. The 41 ka cycle must be part of the cause of the variation in degree of cold from one cold period to the next.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 4. Paths of the thermohaline deep water circulation of warm North Atlantic bottom water (red) and the cold Subarctic return flow (blue) around the oceans [13].<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

3.4. The Deep-Water Thermohaline Currents<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inevitably, this buildup of heat in the North Atlantic<\/strong> creates a situation that results in periodic drastic events in the oceans<\/strong>. Oceanographers discovered a deep-water thermohaline circulation system<\/strong> over 50 years ago [30,36,37,38,39,40,41,42], although they did not speculate on the source of the heat. They have carried out enough research to demonstrate that there is a cycle of climate change<\/strong> that has been occurring every 100 ka<\/strong> during the last 800 ka B.P. It consists of fast-moving, deep thermohaline currents (THC) that move heat down to the southern hemisphere<\/strong> and form part of a global thermohaline system [40]. A return flow of cold Antarctic surface water moves north<\/strong> to the North Atlantic Ocean to replace it and restore the former sea level [40]. This has been suggested to cause a rapid cooling of the northern hemisphere, with glacial advances commencing within about 12 years in Greenland [40]. It was called the \u201cbipolar see-saw\u201d<\/strong> by Broecker [41,42,43]. After this, a period of increasing expansion of cold glacial conditions takes place for about 85 ka, with the sea level falling as more water is stored as ice on land. The cold periods are punctuated by minor warming episodes about every 23 ka.<\/strong> It finally ends when the Arctic air mass reaches an extent such that the warming caused by the change in tilt of the axis of the Earth (precession) causes the Arctic air mass to retreat<\/strong> with its main flow changing from Paths II and III to Path I (Figure 1), i.e., from the northern paths to that centered on southern British Columbia (Figure 1). This produced deglaciation and an Interglacial warm period lasting 10\u201315 ka. The Milankovitch cycles, specifically the eccentricity and the precession cycles, are believed to control the system<\/strong> [5,6].<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.5. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Proposal<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IPCC is sponsored by the United Nations Organization and consists of selected climate scientists from several different countries. Their proposal in 1988 [17] is that human activities have resulted in increased atmospheric carbon dioxide, causing an increase in global temperature that overrides all other causes.<\/strong> It is assumed that the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide since the beginning of the industrial revolution is the cause of the warming [17]. This is not consistent with studies involving changes in temperature in rural areas of the northern hemisphere<\/strong> [18,19] or in much of the southern hemisphere<\/strong>. It is true that it is a greenhouse gas, but it only affects a small range of long-wave reradiation<\/strong> from the surface of the Earth. The latter has a much wider range of wavelengths in its reradiation that depend on the temperature of the radiating surface. The increase in this gas is measured<\/strong> primarily at a single station at the summit of Mount Mauna Loa<\/strong> on the island of Hawaii, and the increase parallels the change in air temperature at that station since about 1900 A.D.<\/strong> It is generally assumed<\/strong> that it does not vary significantly around the globe<\/strong> except for minor seasonal changes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No consideration<\/strong> is given to the fact that as the water in the oceans warms<\/strong>, the carbon dioxide dissolved in it decreases in solubility, and degassing takes place<\/strong>. This degassing from the oceans is slow and matches the increase in temperature of the upper 2000 m<\/strong> of the North Atlantic Ocean, at any rate for the data for that location since 1910. The warming appeared to precede increasing carbon dioxide<\/strong> concentrations during the last deglaciation at 24 sites around the world during the last deglaciation<\/strong> [43], but this was the result of comparing surface water temperature with the total carbon dioxide degassed from the entire water column at each site. The relationship of carbon dioxide to atmospheric air temperature has been widely discussed [44], and it has been shown that temperature changes precede changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide in the case of Antarctic cores<\/strong> [45,46].<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Payet and Holmes provide summaries of some of the main arguments questioning the validity of the IPCC theory<\/strong> [47,48], while Christy has testified before the U.S. Congress that the mathematical models used by the IPCC do not match the real-world observations<\/strong> [49]. The theory<\/strong> has been embraced<\/strong> by governments, research workers who saw it as a means of obtaining research grants, commercial firms who saw the possibilities of new work, environmentalists, and the press since it was a simple explanation that could easily be understood by the public,<\/strong> but it has been severely criticized by a substantial number of experienced scientists.<\/strong> For example, there have been over 75,000 comments published on ResearchGate concerning the relationship between seawater temperature and increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Many are not very chivalrous!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An obvious problem is found when examining the map of the distribution of climate change (mean yearly air temperature) obtained by NASA from satellites<\/strong>\u00a0(Figure 5). The\u00a0main areas of warming are in Northern Canada and the Arctic<\/strong>, with lesser warming in the Sahara and the Australian Outback! Eastern China and Germany show no obvious warming. Obviously, this\u00a0does not fit in with the main industrial centers in the world!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since atmospheric carbon dioxide is present in extremely low quantities and has a narrow band of wavelengths that it absorbs, it cannot possibly compete in effect with the much larger total solar radiation reaching the Earth\u2019s surface. It is a colorless, odorless gas with a molecular weight of 44 and is therefore mainly held down in the lower part of the atmosphere by gravity. Thus, models that assume that carbon dioxide rises to the outer portion of the atmosphere are unrealistic. Water, in all its phases, is a much more potent agent for moving heat around the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Figure 5. Map showing the measured mean annual temperature change around the world between 1951\u20131978 and 2010\u20132019 (NASA). The warming trend is not global and varies from being negative along the coast of Antarctica to over 4 \u00b0C around the Arctic basin.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The evidence for greater solubility of carbon dioxide in water at colder temperatures implies carbon dioxide moving from the air into the oceans during cold events<\/strong> [33] and can result in large quantities of the gas reacting with calcium ions to produce large amounts of calcium carbonate<\/strong> in the form of a calcareous, fine-grained limestone, e.g., during the Devonian and Carboniferous Periods. This implies that its abundance in the atmosphere is not entirely dependent on temperature.<\/strong> Both methane and carbon dioxide are chemicals that can and do take part in chemical reactions, whereas temperature is a measure of heat energy and cannot be created or destroyed. However, it can be changed into other forms of energy.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.5.1. Ongoing Measurements of the Solar Energy Reaching the Surface of the Atmosphere<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basic difference between the IPCC proposal and the other ideas is the source of the additional heat being received in certain areas of the world.<\/strong> The obvious test is to measure the solar heat reaching the upper surface of the Earth\u2019s atmosphere. In 2015, the U.S. Government started collecting satellite measurements of the incoming radiation<\/strong> at the surface of the atmosphere over Salt Lake City, Utah (Figure 2), latitude 40\u00b0 26\u2032 20\u2033 north, longitude 109\u00b0 57\u2032 30\u2033 west from Greenwich.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figure 6 shows the results<\/strong>\u00a0obtained by the end of winter 2023, updated from Pangburn [50]. Shown in blue are the minimum winter temperatures compared with the preindustrial baseline, which are\u00a0consistent with the precession cycle of Milankovitch<\/strong>\u00a0commencing its decreasing mode of solar energy in the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere in 2020. Thereafter, the winter temperatures at these sites decrease, indicating the\u00a0commencement of a cooling trend that is likely to continue for the next 11.5 ka,<\/strong>\u00a0based on the Milankovitch cycles. A\u00a0corresponding warming trend<\/strong>\u00a0should be occurring\u00a0in the higher latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere<\/strong>. The current world record for cold is \u221298 \u00b0C, recorded in the Antarctic winter of 2018 [15], which is likely to stand for a long time since the change in the precession cycle should produce warmer winters there in the near future. In contrast, the\u00a0winters in Western Canada and the southwest United States will be longer, colder, and have increasing precipitation.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 6. Comparison of incoming solar radiation for specific summer and winter months measured by satellites in the atmosphere over Utah from 2015 to 2023, showing the difference between actual totals by season and predicted IPCC CO2 levels (modified from [52]).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This confirms the conclusion that the cold events involving glaciations are started by the 23 ka cycle<\/strong> of precession of the tilt of the earth\u2019s axis, not the 41 ka cycle as concluded by Milankovitch [6] and by Broecker [38,39]. The 41 ka cycle modifies the effects<\/strong> of the precession cycle, as will other local geographic factors<\/strong> such as El Ni\u00f1o, ENSO, and Monsoons [51,52,53]. Carbon dioxide does not seem to be directly involved in the switch in winter climates in either hemisphere.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusions<\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Enough theories have been tried and tested so that we now have a much better idea of how the climatic cycle works.<\/strong> The cycle commenced as soon as the Earth cooled down and is closely related to the main source of heating coming from the Sun and the Milankovitch cycles<\/strong> [5,6]. The Sun has been steadily warming since the beginning of the Earth\u2019s history [31]. If the Astronomers are correct, this heating will continue until the Sun becomes a Red Star<\/strong> and swallows up the inner four planets one by one, possibly starting about 5 Ma in the future.<\/strong> This increase is superimposed on the 23 ka, 41 ka, and 100 ka cycles<\/strong> resulting from the relative positions and movements of the Sun and the Earth.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climate of the Earth is driven by the uneven solar heating<\/strong>\u00a0of the surface of the Earth and the\u00a0movements of the excess heat in the tropics towards the cooler polar regions<\/strong>, primarily by the movements of\u00a0ocean currents,<\/strong>\u00a0modified by\u00a0<\/strong>the movements of\u00a0air masses<\/strong>. The\u00a0rotation of the Earth<\/strong>\u00a0results in the\u00a0Coriolis force causing fluids to rotate<\/strong>\u00a0in a clockwise direction in the northern Hemisphere and in an anticlockwise direction in the southern Hemisphere. It also results in an\u00a0eastward movement of the air masses<\/strong>\u00a0around the Poles of the Earth (Figure 1). Oceans make up 70% of the surface of the Earth, and the thermal properties of water result in\u00a0ocean currents being the primary method of transporting heat<\/strong>\u00a0towards the poles,\u00a0aided by hurricanes<\/strong>. The circular shape of Antarctica prevents the direct transport of heat to Antarctica, in contrast to the heating of adjacent land areas of the Northern Hemisphere via the North Atlantic Ocean. The\u00a0excess heat in the North Atlantic<\/strong>\u00a0Ocean causes intense evaporation of sea water,\u00a0producing dense, deep-water thermohaline masses<\/strong>\u00a0that periodically move south to the colder water circulating around Antarctica, thus causing a periodic\u00a0return flow of cold Antarctic surface water to the North Atlantic.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Carbon dioxide is a gas that is of fundamental importance to life as we know it.<\/strong> If its concentration in the atmosphere becomes too low, the bulk of the living things on the surface of the Earth will die, and the surface will become as barren as the other planets in the solar system [31,43]. There seems to be no connection between carbon dioxide and the temperature of the Earth<\/strong> [14,19,28,29,43,44,45,46].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accordingly, the policies used by policymakers need to be changed to
eliminate the burial of carbon dioxide underground,
not provide large sums of public money to foreign firms to build battery factories,
and realize that we will still need the oil and gas industry in the future.
The gas tax should be eliminated.<\/mark><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stuart Arthur Harris is Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, University of Calgary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Footnote<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This detailed consolidation of contemporary climate science is new and welcome.  Of course it brings in previous perspectives ignored or dismissed by IPCC, an important example being work of Oceanographers expressed in many posts here under the category Oceans Make Climate. <\/strong><\/a> An early and succinct expression of this paradigm was provided by E M. Smith (Chiefio):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Earth, a rocky sphere at a distance from the Sun of ~149.6 million kilometers, where the Solar irradiance comes in at 1361.7 W\/m2, with a mean global albedo, mostly from clouds, of 0.3 and with an atmosphere surrounding it containing a gaseous mass held in place by the planet\u2019s gravity, producing a surface pressure of ~1013 mb, with an ocean of H2O covering 71% of its surface and with a rotation time around its own axis of ~24h, boasts an average global surface temperature of +15\u00b0C (288K).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why this specific temperature? Because, with an atmosphere weighing down upon us with the particular pressure that ours exerts, this is the temperature level the surface has to reach and stay at for the global convectional engine to be able to pull enough heat away fast enough from it to be able to balance the particular averaged out energy input from the Sun that we experience.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s that simple.\u201d\u00a0 E. M. Smith<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The climate of the Earth is driven by the uneven solar heating of the surface of the Earth and the movements of the excess heat in the tropics towards the cooler polar regions, primarily by the movements of ocean currents, modified by the movements of air masses.\u00a0 From Science Matters By\u00a0Ron Clutz A recent paper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":286995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The climate of the Earth is driven by the uneven solar heating of the surface of the Earth and the movements of the excess heat in the tropics towards the cooler polar regions, primarily by the movements of ocean currents, modified by the movements of air","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691818076,691824381,691824379,691824380],"class_list":{"0":"post-286977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-co2","10":"tag-cold-air-masses","11":"tag-milankovitch-cycle","12":"tag-monsoons-and-hurricanes","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/00AdobeStock_266865139.jpg?fit=2193%2C1220&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1cEF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":286364,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=286364","url_meta":{"origin":286977,"position":0},"title":"Is the jet stream changing? Probably based on climate models.","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/03\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Dr. Georgios Fragkoulidis uses forecasts based on\u00a0climate models\u00a0generated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in the U.S. They are based on the assumption that\u00a0carbon dioxide emissions\u00a0will continue to rise and remain high and that the Earth's climate will have warmed by about 4\u00b0C by 2100. Wind velocity and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate models\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate models","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-models"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/00jet_stream.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/00jet_stream.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/00jet_stream.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/00jet_stream.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/00jet_stream.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":267926,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=267926","url_meta":{"origin":286977,"position":1},"title":"Watch: Morano on Fox & Friends on climate activists blocking airports","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/17\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the group\u00a0called The Last Generation. What an ominous name they have. In other words, they think that unless they throw themselves on these highways, on these airport runways, that they\u2019re doomed. That this is it for the Earth \u2014 that people have had their run on this planet.","rel":"","context":"In \"climate activists\"","block_context":{"text":"climate activists","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-activists"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Morano-fox-and-friends-climate-crazies-glue-hands-to-airport.jpg?fit=1200%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Morano-fox-and-friends-climate-crazies-glue-hands-to-airport.jpg?fit=1200%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Morano-fox-and-friends-climate-crazies-glue-hands-to-airport.jpg?fit=1200%2C576&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Morano-fox-and-friends-climate-crazies-glue-hands-to-airport.jpg?fit=1200%2C576&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Morano-fox-and-friends-climate-crazies-glue-hands-to-airport.jpg?fit=1200%2C576&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":224848,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=224848","url_meta":{"origin":286977,"position":2},"title":"Fake Greenland Melting","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/20\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The surface mass balance of Greenland is above average for the fifth year out of the last seven.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/04a0501478cca30752b057dd509b41ccc.jpg?fit=1200%2C783&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/04a0501478cca30752b057dd509b41ccc.jpg?fit=1200%2C783&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/04a0501478cca30752b057dd509b41ccc.jpg?fit=1200%2C783&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/04a0501478cca30752b057dd509b41ccc.jpg?fit=1200%2C783&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/04a0501478cca30752b057dd509b41ccc.jpg?fit=1200%2C783&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":212331,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=212331","url_meta":{"origin":286977,"position":3},"title":"IS THE CLIMATE CHANGE MOVEMENT FALLING APART???","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/07\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"HERE ARE SOME OBSERVATIONS FROM BBC.COM, NYTIMES.COM, NATURE.ORG, MDW.COM, TECHNOLOGYREVIEW.COM, EC.EUROPA.EU, GUARDIAN,COM, AND A FEW OTHER SOURCES. 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Coolish by my standards, certainly not\u00a0hot.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/0Screenshot-2022-08-24-122016.png?fit=844%2C433&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/0Screenshot-2022-08-24-122016.png?fit=844%2C433&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/0Screenshot-2022-08-24-122016.png?fit=844%2C433&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/0Screenshot-2022-08-24-122016.png?fit=844%2C433&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":419183,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=419183","url_meta":{"origin":286977,"position":5},"title":"Study: Earth\u2019s growing heat imbalance \u2013 it\u2019s the clouds and natural climate variability","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/30\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"From the\u00a0University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, and the \u201cHey whatever happened to that CO2 master control knob?\u201d department, comes this encouraging news where real data-driven science was performed instead of the typical modeling madness.","rel":"","context":"In \"Aerosols\"","block_context":{"text":"Aerosols","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=aerosols"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AQO9wlbgEcxPrtcbYrG6WN-a6SLgvML5e4A0o3aR2bkOK-AFW5x6gAnbflh4x3ivEouq6qlRQQzkmOnMjjupVgKdxaO5orjJ4wMS8A17lyrTrkz5SxjNVzGcxLaN9aDA.png?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AQO9wlbgEcxPrtcbYrG6WN-a6SLgvML5e4A0o3aR2bkOK-AFW5x6gAnbflh4x3ivEouq6qlRQQzkmOnMjjupVgKdxaO5orjJ4wMS8A17lyrTrkz5SxjNVzGcxLaN9aDA.png?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AQO9wlbgEcxPrtcbYrG6WN-a6SLgvML5e4A0o3aR2bkOK-AFW5x6gAnbflh4x3ivEouq6qlRQQzkmOnMjjupVgKdxaO5orjJ4wMS8A17lyrTrkz5SxjNVzGcxLaN9aDA.png?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AQO9wlbgEcxPrtcbYrG6WN-a6SLgvML5e4A0o3aR2bkOK-AFW5x6gAnbflh4x3ivEouq6qlRQQzkmOnMjjupVgKdxaO5orjJ4wMS8A17lyrTrkz5SxjNVzGcxLaN9aDA.png?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AQO9wlbgEcxPrtcbYrG6WN-a6SLgvML5e4A0o3aR2bkOK-AFW5x6gAnbflh4x3ivEouq6qlRQQzkmOnMjjupVgKdxaO5orjJ4wMS8A17lyrTrkz5SxjNVzGcxLaN9aDA.png?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=286977"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286999,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286977\/revisions\/286999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/286995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=286977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}