To the editor:
Bryant “Corky” Messner is a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Jeanne Shaheen. To find out about his positions on the issues, I read Abbe Hamilton’s recent (Dec. 17) article describing Messner’s Town Hall event in the Dublin Public Library.
There I discovered that Mr. Messner questions the science linking human activities to global warming.
Mr. Messner may not be aware that the relevant science was developed in the 19th century – by people motivated by curiosity, not by “leftist” philosophy.
First, French scientist Joseph Fourier discovered that some of the heat from the Earth is absorbed by the atmosphere and sent back to the Earth, keeping the Earth warmer than it would be otherwise.
Then two scientists – American Eunice Foote and Irishman John Tyndall – independently discovered that the atmosphere’s heat absorption is due entirely to its trace gases, mainly carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor.
The Austrian scientists, Josef Stefan and Ludwig Boltzmann, then developed a mathematical relationship between the amount of heat or light emitted or absorbed by a solid, liquid or gas, and its temperature.
Using that relationship, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius then calculated how much Earth’s temperature would increase if atmospheric CO2 were doubled. His answer, 9.4°F, is somewhat higher than modern scientists’ estimate of approximately 5.4°F.
At the start of the 19th century, the atmosphere contained 280 parts per million (ppm) of CO2. When we burn fossil fuels, we add CO2 to the atmosphere. That’s why the CO2 level is currently 410 ppm (and climbing), more than sufficient to account (either by Arrhenius’ or modern estimates) for the observed increase of about 2°F of average global temperature since 1800.
In summary, the science linking global warming to fossil fuel burning was developed in the 19th century, independently of current politics.
I encourage readers with questions to contact me (joel.huberman@gmail.com).
Joel Huberman
Peterborough