A Mind-Sized Model: Climate Change

This model begins on the moon. There, it is really, really hot in the sun (hot enough to kill a human) and extremely cold in the shade (cold enough to kill a human).

Here on Earth we can sense a temperature difference between the sun and shade too but the change is slight compared to the moon and far from lethal.

Why the difference? The obvious answer is the fact that here on Earth we have something called air.

Air is made up of many different types of molecules. These molecules absorb energy from the sun (and reflected energy from Earth), hold it for a time and then release it back into the atmosphere where it will be absorbed by some other molecule and eventually make its way into the warming ocean or back into space.

How quickly the energy is absorbed, how much can be absorbed and how long it remains absorbed all depend on the type of molecule doing the absorbing.

The two most important types of molecules in regards to this mind-sized model are, of course, CO2 and H2O.

They're important to this model because they're both very good at absorbing energy, holding onto energy and radiating it back towards Earth.

Given the information above, we can predict what happens when we put more of these particular types of molecules into the atmosphere.

If you leave a comment, please enter the prediction you would make and give the reasons for making that prediction.

Advanced scientific explanation and evidence for everything I've written here can be found at http://www.skepticalscience.com/