Global warming is more complex than it is made out to be - Yorkshire Post Letters

The concern over Global Warming and, in particular, the cause of it are the principal worries. When I read letters and articles I wonder if it is truly understood by those who write the material.

Despite all the shouting it is not CO2 which causes warming. It does cause a reduction of the cooling of the atmosphere. That the end effect is very much the same, it is, mistakenly, perceived as warming.

All the energy which is put into the atmosphere by everything which uses energy by any kind of movement is the cause of the warming.

Energy is weird stuff; it is not possible to buy a few grams of energy in a paper, or plastic bag, a bottle, a tin or other container.

The energy which is held in the cells of a battery appears only on demand from a chemical reaction. Loud crackly sparks which can be produced between two electrical conductors is not electricity but the effect of an energy discharge.

Energy from the Sun, a large nuclear fusion reactor, arrives on the illuminated side of the Earth and is absorbed by the planet and its atmosphere.

Everything touched by it becomes warm. As the Earth rotates on its axis a little less than one half of the surface is always on the night side. It is here that heat energy is radiated into outer space, thus cooling the planet. Because CO2 forms a blanket around the whole of the Earth, much like a duvet does on a bed, the cooling process is reduced. The result is that the Earth warms up.

Solar radiation is the largest source of energy; then there is all that given off by all animal life, including humans, plus that from burning carboniferous fuels, plus that given from 'green' energy, plus that resulting from the effects of gravitation between the earth, moon and sun. It all adds up and ends up in the environment, for it has nowhere else to go.

This is a very complex problem, it covers the whole planet. Doing silly little political things to gain popularity only makes it worse than it would otherwise be. Only a truly radical solution, of a magnitude not seen previously, might work.

In the not too distant future someone with 'expert knowledge' might realise that all the "net-zero" doggerel is actually exacerbating the problem.