Alastair Bain McDonaldIndependent Researcher
Alastair Bain McDonald
BSc (Elect Eng), BSc (Hons)(Open)
I am investigating the history of the greenhouse effect, abrupt climate change, and the inorganic carbon cycle.
About
9
Publications
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Introduction
I am a retired computer programmer who has been studying Earth System Science with the OU & on my own.
My Tiamat Project is an investigation into the causes of abrupt climate change. My hypothesis is that they were caused by major changes in sea ice area, and the reason that these events cannot be simulated by climate models is that the models are wrong. I have identified the error but persuading the scientific community that I am correct is a formidable task, which I have postponed until I have completed my second project.
My second project shows that the chemistry used in the carbon cycle belongs to the 19th Century. The paradigm that silicate weathering draws CO2 down from the atmosphere and so maintains a global climate habitable for life is also wrong, as is ocean chemistry.
Education
January 1998 - December 2002
The Open University
Field of study
- Earth Science
September 1959 - July 1963
Publications
Publications (9)
In several publications in the past three years, we have promoted the notion that massive scale cultivation of shellfish, particularly bivalve mollusc aquaculture, could convert sufficient atmospheric CO2 into the limestone of their bivalve shells to make serious inroads into the atmospheric overburden caused by anthropogenic emissions of CO2 from...
This document is a translation from the French of a letter from Horace-Bénedict de Saussure to the editors of the Journal de Paris. In it, he describes his invention of a hot-box (solar cooker), which he used as a helio-thermometer in experiments which were the first to demonstrate the greenhouse effect. They are described in Chapter 35, Vol II, of...
This is a translation of Chapter 35 from Horace-Benédict de Saussure's famous book "Travels in the Alps". In this chapter, he attempts to explain why the tops of Alpine mountains are covered in snow and ice. In doing so, he develops the theory of Pierre Bouguer of what is now known as the "greenhouse effect". He does not suggest that the atmosphere...
Abrupt climate change explained by an old scheme for outgoing longwave radiation (OLR). Three major abrupt climate change events happened in the Northern Hemisphere during the last glacial termination: two abrupt warmings on entry to the Bølling-Allerød inter-stadial and the Holocene inter glacial; and an abrupt cooling on entry to the Younger Drya...
The greatest danger facing the world from the increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gases is that an abrupt climate change occurs, but the climate models are unable to replicate those events. A simple explanation for both the abrupt warmings and abrupt coolings in the northern hemisphere is a change in the size of the North Atlantic/Arctic sea-ice p...
There are many cases where the climate models do not agree with the empirical data. For instance, the data from radiosondes (and MSUs) do not show the amount of warming in the upper troposphere that is predicted by the models (Thorne et al. 2011). The current scheme for outgoing longwave radiation can be traced back to the great 19th Century French...
There are many cases where the climate models do not agree with the empirical data. For instance, the data from radiosondes (and MSUs) do not show the amount of warming in the upper troposphere that is predicted by the models (Thorne et al. 2011). The current scheme for outgoing longwave radiation can be traced back to the great 19th Century French...
The Tiamat Hypothesis postulates that planetary climates are non-linear dynamical systems, with varying negative and positive feedbacks which switch the systems between stable and unstable states. On Earth, the climate system is dominated by a positive feedback loop caused by the greenhouse effect of water vapour on sea surface temperatures. When t...
Questions
Questions (19)
