The sun has controlling interest in Earth's climate, not man-made activity

To The Daily Sun,

Well Jim Veverka is again cherry-picking quotes and data to support his distorted picture of reality. In his recent letter (https://www.laconiadailysun.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/accelerating-warming-alarms-more-than-just-liberals/article_34192d6a-d893-11e9-932a-1f8399da0668.html) he claimed that global warming is accelerating at .2C per decade and cited this link: (https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature) as proof. Look at it closely! In the last two years the average temperature has dropped .1C. So, if that continues the global temperature will actually decrease by 5C over the next century. Huh, wouldn’t Jim look foolish wearing a sweater in the summer? I’m being facetious.

Jim provided some big numbers in his letter so I’ll toss some back and see if he catches them. For those that don’t know I graduated from WPI with a degree in nuclear engineering. I thought I would design nuclear reactors for a living but that future ended when the 3-Mile Island nuclear reactor had a core breach in March 1979. Getting back on topic, I decided to do some numbers myself and started where any engineer would, at the beginning! From a physical stand point the earth is a giant rock orbiting the sun.

Outer space is really cold, 2.73 degrees Kelvin (-270C or -455F). Oxygen freezes at -361F. So, if space is so cold why is the earth so warm? The answer is the sun. According to NASA, the sun deposits 1361 Watts/square meter of energy on a fluctuating basis. Since the diameter of the earth is 12,742,000 meters, the earth receives 1.73X10+17 watts. So, where does all that energy go? The answer is, back to space as radiated heat.

It’s well known science that hot things radiate heat and it is calculated simply as Q=kAT^4. Q is energy, k is the Stefan-Boltzmann Constant (5.67 X 10-8 W/m^2K^4), A is surface area and T is the temperature in degrees Kelvin. We know Q is 1.73X10+17 from above, the surface area of the earth is 5.1X10+14 m^2 so we can calculate the average temperature of the earth needed to radiate all that energy back into space. The number is 278K (or 5C or 41F). I realize that the math is beyond most people but I’m sure Jim Veverka can follow the math and point out any errors.

So, I’m sure everyone is scratching their heads saying that is just nuts? But it’s not! It makes complete sense. Let me explain. Every day we watch this happen and never think about it. Night is colder than day for a reason and it’s no more complicated than during the day energy coming from the sun exceeds the energy radiating from the earth so temperatures go up. The reverse is true at night! I’m close to my 500-word limit so for those who think heat generated by fossil fuels adds to what comes from the sun, I did that calculation and the sun provides 60,000 time more energy than all manmade energy sources combined. The sun (or God) controls the climate! Here is a good video for climate “alarmists” and “realists” alike. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKmz7OGcyzU)

Bruce Jenket

Moultonborough