Chapters 13-14
Chapter 13
Two peaks in insolation resulted in only one interglacial.
The CO2 level and increasing insolation 105,000 years ago should have caused the Earth to warm up, but it didn't.
A novel way to show why the Earth changes temperature back and forth around the central temperature. Any anomaly from the equilibrium temperature is like a rock being rolled up a hill. It is much easier for the rock to go downhill than it is to go uphill.
135,000 and 20,000 years ago the Earth was losing very little energy because the temperature was cold. When the energy from the Sun increased the Earth experienced dramatic, but limited warming. 115,000 years ago and today the Earth is warm and losing excessive energy to space. 115,000 years ago the Earth experienced significant cooling.
Since 2002 the Earth has been losing an additional 2 W/m2 of energy to space. The only possible outcome is cooling in the future.
The warmer the Earth gets the faster it loses energy. When the Earth is as warm as it is today, it is very difficult to cause additional increases in temperature.
The amount of energy the Earth loses is in sync with the Earth's seasons. The Earth's temperature and not the amount of energy available from the Sun determine the amount of energy that the Earth is losing.
The Earth at 16.0 °C loses 7 W/m2 more energy than the Earth does at 14.0 °C. This is the main mechanism that regulates the temperature of the Earth. The trend is ~3.5 W/m2 per °C.
While there is no way to show that changes in the rate of OLR caused the past temperature swings, the laws of physics are that warmer bodies lose energy at a faster rate than cool objects. OLR explains the behavior that CO2 levels do not.
The Earth's temperature is always varying from one extreme to the other. (Raymo, 2005)
Eemian Energy Gap shown with modern 65N insolation.
Modern Energy Gap shown. If the Earth behaves in the same manner as it has in the past, the only possibility is long-term cooling.
The theoretical slope is 3.48 W/m2 K vs. the observed 3.47 W/m2 K.
Chapter 14
It is charts like this that convince people that global warming is possible.
The same data, but overlaid. That temperature drops first is evident in all cases.
The filled area is the daily temperature anomaly. (Red) High temperature, (Blue) Low Temperature
