Venus not a viable analogy to climate science here on Earth
By Letter to the Editor on March 23, 2020.
There’s transcendence to “Venus: The Evening Beacon” (Feb. 29) and the dates for this planet’s successive conjunctions. Unfortunately, there are also statements outdated or wrong, e.g., Venus’ clouds “comprised of CO2” when they’re really sulfur dioxide. Worse is the Zombie from 50 years ago, still blamed for Venus’ ferocious heat: “The clouds also produce the greenhouse effect, trapping the solar energy.” Updating the science undercuts the panic in our perception of CO2. Venus is actually not the model they say it is.
When the Messenger probe began mapping Mercury in 2011, its ceramic heat shield registered 370¡C from the sun. Venus, 52 million kilometres more distant, radiated an ongoing 467¡C – 15 per cent more heat than it receives. Its surface pressure is 100 times Earth’s because its CO2 (96.4 per cent of its atmosphere) is not a gas but a supercritical fluid, dense enough to withstand solar winds despite Venus’ lack of magnetic fields.
The heat and CO2 led to the early theory that Venus had suffered a runaway greenhouse effect. This in turn shocked our perceptions of terrestrial CO2 (0.039 per cent), then climbing in response to a modest warming (since levelled off). But a political grift was born.
The radar-mapping Magellan probe revealed that Venus is tectonically locked. Its surface crust spread out from the equator until it piled upward, in places like Maxwell Montes and Ishtar Terra, instead of subducting. On Earth, plate tectonics allow our world to shed excess heat; Venus uniformly exudes heat across its entire surface. On Earth, some 1,850 volcanoes occur along fault lines. Venus has an estimated 100,000 volcanoes scattered across its crust (the 2008-09 Venus Express read 500¡C temperature spikes, a cluster of them at Ganis Chasma, indicating active eruptions). A complete lack of surface water keeps its other features rigid.
The greenhouse effect cannot account for a core too molten to generate magnetic fields – but planetary geology can and does. It is in every way a different world. Venus is not analogous to the trace biogas conditions of Earth, and can’t be credibly used as an example of what might go wrong here.
Tom Yeoman
Lethbridge
9-8
“Updating the science undercuts the panic in our perception of CO2.”
NO IT DOES NOT!
Certainly, as science progresses, there are times when old theories are updated and sometimes are rejected. That may be the case with the causes of Venus’s atmosphere. But so what?
Apples and oranges Mr Yeoman.
The current data on this planet has and still suggests, that CO2 accumulation is a cause (note: not the only cause) of global warming and thus “climate change”.
Watermelons? Pretty intelligent and logical thoughts expressed in Mr Yeoman’s article – Venus is not an analog for the (unproven and illogical) CO2 warming phenomenon espoused by globalists for their political end. No idea what our Mr JN’s basis or argument is, other than energetic armwaving.
good rebuttal resolute
l
Sorry you did not understand my “basis” or “ argument” R and P.
My point was that the writer’s observation whilst it is no doubt accurate, really should not cloud our recognition that earth’s current climate crisis is at least partially a result of CO2 levels increasing in our atmosphere.
His assertion that because of the findings on Venus, that this “undercuts” our perception of CO2’s effect in our atmosphere.
Resolute’s statement “ Venus is not an analog for the (unproven and illogical) CO2 warming phenomenon espoused by globalists for their political end” says it all, that is, a continuing conviction that it is “unproven” and “illogical” and indeed “political “ to even hint as to CO2’s contribution to the current situation.
No argument that facts have changed re Venus (I’ll take Yeoman’s word on that) but to extrapolate that toward our home is in my opinion false. (apples and oranges).
“Venus is not analogous to the trace biogas conditions of Earth, and can’t be credibly used as an example of what might go wrong here.”
Well said Tom. Possibly the many incredible claims of the “climate crisis” set will eventually undermine the credibility of the CO2 induced climate emergency concept. Wil climate panic survive the COVID – 19 crisis?