Sagan, Hawking, & Mann: Pseudo-Scientists

The insanity of comparing the atmosphere of Venus to Earth’s atmosphere is just one instance of mainstream “scientists”  jumping the tracks — including the ensconced leadership of the American Physics Institute, American Chemical Society,  American Geophysical Union, Union of Concerned Scientists, EGU, AAAS, as well as Stephen Hawking, and Carl Sagan.

To mimic the atmosphere of Venus would require 1) the absence of liquid or frozen water on the surface 2) eons of intense volcanism, spitting out water vapor, CO2, plus all the sulfur-bearing compounds in volcanic discharges.

On Venus, the free discharge of the sulfur compounds (H2S, SO2, etc) into the atmosphere reacted with water vapor to produce the all-enshrouding clouds of sulfuric acid on Venus. The 96 percent CO2 atmosphere is so dense that it exerts 90 terrestrial atmospheres onto the surface of Venus, heating the surface temperature to 462°C.

The Earth does possess vast oceans and polar ice caps. The sulfur compounds discharging from the ocean’s underwater vents dissolved in the water to produce metal sulfide compounds (zinc sulfides, Iron sulfides).

These metal sulfides power anaerobic bacteria, which use sulfur reduction as their energy source. The water remained liquid due to the heating from the vents of the ocean floor.  The ice sheets on the surface protected nascent life from the destructive forces that rained down.

The pH of the ocean water measures 8.3 to 8.4. The pH of human blood ranges between 7.3 to 7.4.  Our distant bacterial ancestors lingered just outside the scalding and deeply acidic columns emitted from hydrothermal vents.

Carl Sagan identified the Faint Young Sun Paradox. That is, like any young star, the Sun required 3 billion years to expand out into full luminosity. He could not understand how the earliest life forms could have evolved if the surface of the planet was not warm enough to maintain liquid water on the surface. The paradox is readily explicable.

As the Earth warmed from within and the Sun grew out to full luminosity, the ice sheets melted, a CO2-rich atmosphere formed and then Cyanobacteria (aerobic bacteria) evolved to use photosynthesis as their energy source. The Cyanobacteria produced the Great Oxygenation Event, leading to Earth’s Oxygen-rich atmosphere.

Sagan clung to the idea that the building block molecules of life were spawned via continuous streams of lightning flashing thru the “primordial soup” of Earth’s early atmosphere (the Miller-Urey process).

The Miller-Urey process is deeply flawed in several ways.

1) The continuous lightning bolts would have broken down the amino acids and complex biochemicals as fast as they were produced.

2) Even if the biochemicals rained out and hid from the lightning, the thin early atmosphere gave no protection from bombardment by radiation and meteors.

3) It is known that all major biochemicals have left-hand chirality (left-hand twist). Even if the early biochemicals could have survived the destruction described above, the violent means of formation would have yielded a 50/50 mix of left-hand and right-hand chirality

The left-handedness of the major biochemicals is necessary for DNA and RNA to “unzip” for replication. The left-hand chiral genes inside the DNA molecule are wrapped by the outer double helix of right-hand chiral Deoxyribose sugar molecules and phosphate molecules forming the DNA double helix.

“Back Radiation” from 0.04 of one (1) percent CO2 (400 ppm) and the alleged “Runaway Greenhouse Gas Effect” on Earth is Science gone wrong.

Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking are greater pseudo-scientists than Mickey Mann, aka the “hockey stick” man.

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