Abstract

The laws of physics, namely the gas laws, were applied to the gases in the atmosphere that act as ideal gases. The results show that as air temperature increases from winter to summer CO₂ is a cooling gas and from summer to winter it is a warming gas regardless of its concentration in the atmosphere. This is contrary to the commonly held belief that CO₂ always warms the atmosphere. Back radiation is the sum of the radiation of all of the greenhouse gases back to the Earth. It is a measured value and increases with temperature and vice versa. Back radiation acts opposite to that of CO₂, methane and the trace gases. On average, the latter account for 1.2% of back radiation and water vapor accounts for 98.8%. The effect of CO₂, methane and the trace gases on atmospheric temperature and climate change is so small as to be negligible.

Keywords

carbon dioxide, water vapor, back radiation, atmospheric temperature, climate change, radiative forcing, coal, oil, natural gas, greenhouse gases, warming effect, humidity, fossil fuels, earth’s temperature, methen