The Physics of Climate Change

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1. sixbrxOct 2023
   It's not the saturation at the peak absorbtion frequencies that is driving the warming, it's the widening of the curves which raises absorbtion levels in nearby frequencies. The "saturated" argument was one of the first objections when the science was poorly understood. Krauss's book Physics of Climate CHange has a good account of this history. Check IPCC summaries to see how many models from the literature predict flattening at 0.7C additional warming if we don't curb emissions (spoiler alert: slim to none with many positing 5C or more additional warming in the 2100's if emissions aren't curbed).
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2. DennisPSep 2023
   The CO2 level has increased by 50% since preindustrial times. You don't need a super-complicated model to figure out what that does to the global average temperature. It was predicted with decent accuracy in 1896, based on simple thermodynamics, and better accuracy several decades later with just slightly more complicated physics. No fancy computer modeling at all, just a calculation that a physicist can work out on paper, and we've been right on target since then.

   For details see the recent little book The Physics of Climate Change.

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3. glitcherApr 2023
   The Physics of Climate Change by Lawrence M. Krauss

   https://www.lawrencemkrauss.com/single-post/the-physics-of-c...

   Perhaps not exactly what you're looking for in terms of potential solutions, but it's an honest and sobering account of where we're at without any undue sensationalization.

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4. DennisPFeb 2023
   Since you have a science background, I'll strongly recommend the recent short book The Physics of Climate Change by Lawrence Krauss, which details how our CO2 emissions change the planet's temperature. It's fairly basic thermodynamics and was predicted with decent accuracy over a century ago.

   Also there are several chapters in Hansen's book Storms of My Grandchildren that go into the geological record, with multiple lines of evidence that all point to a similar sensitivity of the planet's average temperature to CO2 levels.

   (Regarding invasive diseases, I meant primarily things affecting forests.)

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5. DennisPFeb 2023
   What's more, the core facts of anthropogenic climate change are based on fairly basic thermodynamics, and were predicted with decent accuracy as far back as 1896. A great little book covering this is the recent The Physics of Climate Change.
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6. DennisPJan 2023
   Several independent lines of geologic evidence all point to a similar climate sensitivity (see Hansen). Some fairly basic physics does the same, and physicists back to 1896 predicted our current reality pretty well. The recent book The Physics of Climate Change by Lawrence Krauss covers that in detail.
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