A Simple Explanation of Weather and Climate Change
The Sun, the shape of the Earth, sunlight, infrared radiation, oceans, gravity, atmospheric thermodynamics, water vapor, volcanoes, carbon dioxide and methane play a part.
John Shanahan Civil Engineer
February 7, 2025
Introduction
Earth’s weather is beautiful, complex and unique. Many fields of science are needed to explain weather and climate in the past, present and future.
Climate alarmists and some climate realists use static values for global average temperature, sunlight energy into the atmosphere and infrared radiation, IR, leaving the atmosphere and IR’s interaction with the principal “greenhouse.” gases. Their studies do not consider actual weather processes, day and night, a tilted axis, nor orbit of the Sun. They do not explain ice ages and interim warm periods. This is inadequate for understanding weather and climate in the past, present and future. But it is good enough for them to decide about fossil fuels and the modern world.
Only a spherical, rotating, tilted axis, solar orbiting model of the Earth with gravity, oceans and atmospheric thermodynamics with the Coriolis Effect can explain Earth’s weather and climate well.
Coal, oil and natural gas and their by-products have improved the standard of living. They enabled the population to grow beyond the limits of the last 50,000 years. Man-made global
warming alarmists want to stop the use of fossil fuels. One of the worst ideas for humanity, ever.
Students, their parents and grandparents can understand enough about the weather and the hoax of man-made global warming alarmism by studying simple ideas, pictures and graphs. They can distinguish between actual weather and ridiculous climate alarmism. They don’t need lots of equations, calculations of average global temperatures “accurate” to a tenth of a degree Centigrade or college-level details of electromagnetic radiation.
Explanations of weather need to study the nearly spherical shape of the Earth, its daily rotation, tilting axis, annual orbiting with four seasons and know the importance of the vast quantities of water in the oceans. Not just study carbon dioxide, water vapor, clouds and a shallow layer of the top of the oceans. The studies need to include the effects of gravity, the Coriolis Effect and atmospheric thermodynamics. They need to explain what caused the much different weather in the distant past.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, UN IPCC, and likeminded organizations base their conclusions on flawed simple models or complex models that need supercomputers.
Some scientists claim that studies of the Greenhouse Effect alone can determine temperature change to a tenth of a degree Centigrade!!
Other scientists conclude that the GHE is flawed or doesn’t even exist…...
Nothing about weather and life on Earth would exist on a flat, non-rotating disk with constant average temperature and average radiation in and out.
Should we make decisions about the use of fossil fuels affecting the lives of 8 billion people based on these flawed climate models?
Most people don’t know what a photon is. A photon has no dimensions, no mass and travels at the speed of light!!! It is a “package” of energy! Rays of
sunshine enter Earth’s atmosphere and infrared radiation leave the atmosphere occupying the same space, impossible for matter with mass and dimensions.
Energy is the ability to do work. You can’t touch energy! But it generates electricity and powers all machines and vehicles.
What happens when photons of sunlight land on you? They warm your face and make you smile.
Sunshine warms the Earth, supports life and makes plants grow. Over long periods, plants are converted to coal, crude oil and natural gas and thousands of by-products: asphalt for roads and roofing, clothing, sports equipment, cosmetics, medical equipment and medicines, packaging for foodstuff and everything else. Conventional thinking is that coal, crude oil and natural gas are created when plants, algae, and other biomass materials are buried deep in the earth's crust under high heat and pressure where anaerobic microbes existing without oxygen or sunlight create hydrocarbons. Sunshine produces all weather events except those which come from energy in Earth’s core: tidal waves from earthquakes and ash, gases, water vapor and water droplets from volcanoes.
Infrared radiation, IR, coming from the warmed surfaces of the land and oceans has the same amount of energy as sunshine but it is in less useful form. It cannot do a lot of the wonderful things that sunshine does. But it does one important thing. IR adds heat to water vapor and a lesser extent
carbon dioxide and methane in lower elevations. This warms the atmosphere and causes all the weather events.
How many plants grow from Earth-generated infrared radiation? Do animals live off those plants or do cities function from infrared radiation? NO!!
Why make a mountain out of a molehill with claims of catastrophic manmade global warming from infrared radiation from fossil fuels acting on carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? What are Al Gore, John Holdren, John Kerry and their counterparts around the world up to? NO GOOd!!
Ideologists, power mongers, the World Economic Forum and many others want people to fear carbon dioxide from fossil fuels!!!!!!! They are your leaders of the free world!!!! Who are our worst enemies?
Man-made climate change troublemakers don’t talk about actual weather phenomena. They use flat Earth models to study sunshine, infrared radiation, cloud reflection (albedo), CO2 and H2O. They don’t pay attention to the shape of the Earth, its dynamics, gravity, atmospheric thermodynamics, the work done by storms, the Coriolis Effect, etc.
Sunlight and Infrared Radiation
Sunlight is the main source of heat for the weather.
Infrared radiation is the main source of cooling the land and oceans, warming the atmosphere and sending energy back to space.
People promoting the Greenhouse Theory say that IR leaves land and ocean surfaces and travels in zig-zag paths after encountering CO2, H2O, and cow flatulence (methane) on its way back to space. They rarely explain how infrared radiation causes weather.
IR encounters carbon dioxide and water vapor within the first several hundred meters of the surface, energizing these molecules that in turn energize the rest of the gases nearby. Atmospheric thermodynamics takes over. The warm moist air rises to form clouds and storms. Above the highest clouds, the thermalized energy in atmosphere molecules converts back to IR which continues to outer space, cooling the planet. In the desert, there is almost no water vapor. The air gets heated by conduction, direct contact with the ground.
Incoming sunlight energy must equal outgoing infrared radiation energy to space. Otherwise, the planet would get hotter or colder.
The sunlight and infrared radiation vary with the time of day and season. The sunlight energy goes to zero at night. The infrared radiation IR varies in intensity during the day, the night, the season and on cloudy days.
The actual variation is ignored in Greenhouse Effect studies. They use static averages of a non-rotating Earth. The weather in such models would be very different from actual weather on Earth. Can their conclusions about IR and greenhouse gases be correct?
The shape of the Earth is important for weather.
Many three-dimensional bodies might exist in space and have weather. But they don’t!
Most stars, planets and moons are nearly spherical. The Earth is a slightly distorted sphere, like a lumpy potato.
Two-dimensional shapes used in modeling the Earth can’t fully explain climate.
Three-dimensional shapes besides near-spheres and two-dimensional shapes cannot have weather like on Earth. Space dust and rocks gather into stars, planets and moons by the force of gravity and form sphere-like shapes. You can’t have weather on non-rotating flat surfaces. You can’t have weather on cylinders and cones. You need doubly curved surfaces like a sphere, gravity and oceans to have weather like on Earth.
There are many scientific papers explaining Earth’s climate by using the average temperature for the whole planet, average sunshine and average
infrared radiation energy leaving Earth back to space! These models always faces the sun, do not have gravity and vast oceans or Earth’s weather. There is no day and night, no seasons. So why do we use such models to determine the future use of fossil fuels and the fate of eight billion people?
Sun’s rays strike the different surfaces of the Earth.
The Earth’s surface is perpendicular to rays of sunlight near the equator. The Earth’s surface is tilted away from the sunlight at higher latitudes. Solar energy is strongest near the Equator. At the poles, the average solar energy just glances off the surface and is very weak.
More thunderstorms occur near the equator than elsewhere. Sun-heated air parcels move to higher elevations along radial lines and from the equator to the poles along meridional lines. Weather and the atmosphere are rarely discussed by Greenhouse Effect theorists.
Students, the public and political leaders can understand that nonspherical three-dimensional shapes and two-dimensional shapes have different weather than Earth. Can’t use them for decision making.
Gravity is important for the weather.
The shapes of the stars, planets and moons are determined by gravity acting everywhere in the universe where there is matter. Gravity acts continuously and forever. Its force is dependent on the inverse square of the distance between two masses. The shape of the Earth governs the weather. Evaporated water rises against gravity to form clouds, and rain and snow fall on the land. It holds the atmosphere and oceans in place. Otherwise, they would float away into space.
Gravity has many important roles in actual weather but people who think that everything depends only on the Greenhouse Effect give gravity little attention. See John Kerry, John Holdren, Michael Mann, Jim Hansen, etc.
The Coriolis Effect plays an important role.
The Coriolis Effect is caused by the near-spherical shape of the Earth and its daily rotation. The smaller radius of cross-sections at different latitudes causes the rotating Coriolis Effect. Low-pressure weather systems of all sizes (several hundred miles/km down to a hundred feet/30 meters radius) rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
The photo above shows a hurricane in the Northern Hemisphere rotating counterclockwise due to the Coriolis Effect. The rotating weather effect doesn’t happen if the planet has the shape of a flat disk, cube, pyramid, cylinder, or cone and if it doesn’t rotate!
How can studies of the weather and climate be accurate if they don’t include the Coriolis Effect? Storms wouldn’t rotate and would distribute their energy differently. Man-made global warming alarmists insist that their predictions of climate change are valid if they only study the Greenhouse Effect of CO2, H2O and methane on a flat, non-rotating model!
High-pressure weather systems in the Northern Hemisphere flow in the reverse direction - clockwise.
Atmospheric thermodynamics is important.
Thermodynamics is the study of the relationship between temperature (thermo) and changing volume of gases. The warmer humid air is lighter and rises to form clouds and storms. Colder air is denser and sinks.
Here is a 2009 textbook by Gerald North and Tatiana Erukhimova, Atmospheric Thermodynamics.
Here is a 2024 paper by Tom Shula, On The Dynamics of Thermalization in The Atmosphere.
Here is a 2024 paper by Douglas Lightfoot and Gerald Ratzer, Factors affecting Earth’s temperature.
Here is a 2024 paper by Terigi Ciccone. How the Sun warms the Earth and How the Earth cools.
Here is a 2024 worldwide Discussion Group report on climate science: CDG2024.
Heat is energy in gas, liquid and solid molecules. Heat flows from hot to cold areas by fluid flow in the oceans and atmosphere and by conduction in solids. Without new energy input, heat is distributed uniformly throughout a medium and is less useful to do work. Think of a white-water river or a calm lake, a stormy day in March or a calm summer day.
Atmospheric circulation patterns.
Weather includes atmosphere and ocean circulation patterns. These patterns don’t happen on flat surface planet models. Climate predictions are based on a flat surface; non-rotating Earth models have many flaws.
Oceans are important.
Many climate studies ignore the tremendous amount of water in the oceans. Planets without oceans have different climates. The tremendous influence of the oceans is not mentioned by people focusing on the Greenhouse Effect of man-made global warming. Are they right?
A simple summary of Earth’s weather
Earth’s shape is a nearly spherical lumpy potato. It has gravity, atmosphere and vast oceans. Weather is determined by sunshine and these things. Water vapor is one of several forms of water. Their molecules interact with infrared radiation coming off the heated surfaces of the land and oceans, capturing energy from photons and passing that energy on to other molecules in the atmosphere. The same thing happens with carbon dioxide and methane but to a barely measurable degree. That heat (weather) circulates to higher elevations and from the equator to the poles where it is converted back to infrared radiation that escapes to space. Weather is not just about infrared radiation, water vapor and carbon dioxide.
Climate change alarmists focus mainly on infrared radiation acting on carbon dioxide, water vapor and methane molecules. They ignore the important roles of gravity, atmospheric thermodynamics, the vast oceans and the Coriolis Effect. Their model of the Earth is a flat surface that constantly faces the sun. The weather in this model is vastly different from the real world. Probably the weather on this model wouldn’t even exist. They calculate temperature change from additional carbon dioxide using static global average temperature, average sunshine energy and average
infrared energy. It is hard to believe that their calculations and conclusions are worth a photon!
Their demands to abandon the use of fossil fuels are some of the worst things ever imposed on humanity. Al Gore, John Kerry, John Holdren, Jim Hansen and people like them everywhere must stop their climate alarmism.
Conclusions
1) Climate research using flat-surface, non-rotating models of Earth, static global average temperature, average sunlight and infrared radiation is inadequate to understand past, present and future weather and climate that varies all over the globe. The UN IPCC and all climate alarmists are wrong.
2) The Greenhouse Man-Made Global Warming Effect Theory doesn't explain weather or climate varying all over the world all the time.
3) Man-made global warming alarmists want to stop the use of fossil fuels and destroy the modern world.
4) Scientists and engineers studying weather and climate with scientific objectivity are heroes.
References
Studying real weather
Here is a list of scientists, engineers, teachers, writers, and reporters who study weather based on atmospheric events that we are familiar with. Most authors do not offer complete explanations of weather and climate. They do not necessarily agree with each other. Many outstanding individuals are doing this science. We apologize for not being able to include everyone.
This website does not require peer-reviewed academic publications that frequently go along with the consensus. People are included because they make good contributions to public education about real weather and sound energy in the opinion of John Shanahan, host of allaboutenergy.net.
Habibulla Abdussamatov, Martin Armstrong, Earl Ault, Russ Babcock, Ronald Barmby, Joe Bast, Charles Battig, Calvin Beisner, Larry Bell, Guus Berkhout, Ed Berry, Roger Bezdek, Christopher Booker, Sterling Burnett, David Burton-1, David Burton-2, Terigi Ciccone, John Clauser, Michael and Ronan Connolly, Marty Cornell, John Christy, Ron Clutz, John Constable, Susan Crockford, Judith Curry, Rupert Darwall,Fernando del Pino Calvo Sotelo, Brian Dingwall, Terry Donze, Tilak Doshi, Frank Dreves, Paul Driessen, John Droz, John Dunn, John Eidson, Ferdinand Engelbeen, Alex Epstein, Duggan Flanakin, Bernd Fleischmann, Gordon Fulks, Samuel Furfari, Michel Gay, Gerhard Gerlich, Indur Goklany, Steve Goreham, Pierre Gosselin, Gerhard Grasruck, Bill Gray, Ken Haapala, Kip Hansen, William Happer, Hermann Harde, Howard Cork Hayden, Tony Heller, Paul Homewood, Heinz Hug, Ole Humlum, Craig Idso,; Zbigniew Jaworowski, Vijay Jayaraj, Eric Jelinski, Michael Kelly, William Kininmonth, Albert Koehler, Steve Koonin Joel Kotkin, Demetris Koutsoyiannis, Josef Kowatsch, Martin Krohn, Donna Laframboise, David Legates, Jim Le Maistre, Kees le Pair, Douglas Lightfoot, Richard Lindzen , Bjorn Lomborg, Oddvar Lundseng, Sebastian Luening, Anthony Lupo, Wallace Manheimer, Andy May, Ross McKitrick, Francis Menton, Christopher Monckton, Andrew Montford, Patrick Moore, Ludwig Neidhart, Ned Nikolov, JoNova, Marcus Ott, Roger Pielke Jr, Roger Pielke Sr, Alex Pope, Gerald Ratzer, Peter Ridd, Matt Ridley, John Robson, Norman Rogers, Craig Rucker, Anthony Sadar, Nicola Scafetta, Lars Schernikau, Nir Shaviv, Michael Shellenberger, Tom Shula, Fred Singer, Irina Slav, Willie Soon, Roy Spencer, Siegfried Stark, Ronald Stein, Jim Steele, Reinhard Storz, Colin Summerhayes, Henrik Svensmark, Anastasios Tsonis, Fritz Vahrenholt, Georg von Petersdorff, Thorpe Watson, Anthony Watts, Uli Weber, David Wojick, Gregory Wrightstone, Gary
Young, Karl Zeller, Valentina Zharkova and Aleksandr Zhitomirskiy.
Studying the Greenhouse Effect, GHE
These scientists focus on sunlight, infrared radiation and electromagnetic spectrum at the Top of the Atmosphere. They have done outstanding work in their careers. Their presentations of the Greenhouse Effect for explaining Earth’s real weather that varies with time and location have limitations. You can not work back from the change of averages to predict the behavior of all the individual contributing data. They hardly mention the role of the large area and volume of the oceans. Water has three phases: ice, liquid and water vapor. Energy is needed or given off for each change of phase. Clouds have many roles.
William Happer, William van Wijngaarden
Howard Cork Hayden
Weather and life on their static Earth models would not be the same as weather and life in the real dynamic world.
Alarmists
This is a brief section about climate alarmists. The main point of this article is to present easy-to-understand narratives and photos about actual weather and climate. We don’t focus here on their errors and intentions.
Some Individual Climate Alarmists:
Germany: Stefan Rahmstorf, H J Schellnhuber, UK: Wade Alison, USA: James Hansen, Al Gore, John Holdren, John Kerry, Michael Mann, Bill McKibben, the Vatican: Pope Francis
Some Climate Alarmist Global Organizations:
Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace, Sierra Club, United Nations - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, World Economic Forum, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Climate alarmists aim to stop use of fossil fuels and end the modern world. Their intentions are a disaster for humanity. People in Australia, New Zealand, North America and Europe who accept the claims of catastrophic man-made global warming are making an awful mistake.
About John Shanahan
He is a retired civil engineer who spent a lot of time in the 1970s doing field studies, physical testing and computer simulation of the world’s most powerful storms to ensure proper design for nuclear power plant safety. Later, he spent 25 years studying climate science and the claim that carbon dioxide from fossil fuels can have a serious impact on the weather.
Three thousand seven hundred, 3,700, articles by one thousand three hundred, 1,300, scientists, engineers and energy policy advisors writing about energy, energy by-products, the environment and people benefiting from the modern world are posted on allaboutenergy.net. Articles have different points of view. Most articles don’t have complex equations, graphics or theories. Visitors to the website can decide what is right.
Many contributing authors about energy and climate don’t get attention from the mainstream media and certain climate science gatekeepers.
Authors in this report are from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia,
Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, UK, Ukraine, USA, Venezuela and Zambia. Some contributing countries may have been overlooked. Search for authors and articles about these countries in the search box on the top of every page at allaboutenergy.net.
The mission of the website allaboutenergy.net is to help everyone understand the importance of sound decision-making for energy, energy by-products, the environment and climate science for the long-term benefit of humanity, biodiversity, wildlife habitat and pollution reduction.
John Shanahan