Keynote address at the Citizens Climate Lobby - Midwest Regional Conference by Bennet B. Brabson, Professor Emeritus, IU Bloomington, whose research included the Physics of Climate Change.
The sun says, Professor Brabson, does either one of two things when it's energy encounters Earth: it evaporates water or it heats the surface.
Roughly 80% of the energy is absorbed converting water to water vapor. The heated land however gives off infra-red radiation, the energy we perceive as warmth, back into space.
He compares the Earth's atmosphere to two windows. One totally open to the incoming energy but the other partially closed to the out going. That partially closed window, due to heat trapping gases like water vapor and CO2 is why were have a livable planet. But human use of fossil fuels and world wide destruction of forests and grass lands has been adding to the relatively tiny presence of CO2 and in effect closing the window that lets out the heat. Unlike the water vapor, which cycles in and out of the atmosphere, CO2 can remain for a thousand years unless taken up by the Earth's forests and grass lands; biomes which Capitalism has excelled at greatly reducing.
The geological record reveals that drought comes in two forms: Hot and Cool. Professor Brabson speaks about the effect that a hotter atmosphere has on soil moisture, his area of research, and more intense weather and the negative potential for food security.
Professor Brabson's offers some examples of clever solutions to reduce fossil fuel use that can be implemented when the influence of the fossil fuel lobby on policy makers is countered through the work of folks like those in his audience.
Bennet B. Brabson Professor Emeritus, IU Bloomington Physics of Climate Change (since 1996), Elementary Particle Physics (Experimental) (1963-1996) Carleton College, 1960 Ph.D., MIT, 1966. MIT Postdoc, 1967, NSF Postdoc at U. Padua, Italy, 1968
Keynote address to the Great Lakes Regional Conference of the Citizens Climate Lobby. The lively talk is to members of the Citizens Climate Lobby who assembled to share skills and learn more effective ways to communicate to their elected officials the urgency of the climate crisis and what needs to be done.
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