Even skilled architects advise the use of thicker glass as a cost effective option of insulating buildings. It is little wonder confusion abounds. We have renowned climate scientists teaching in the media that air works like glass. They preach  “greenhouse effect”, never “atmospheric effect”, to explain Earth’s warming processes. How can I explain insulation to Jo Trade?

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Teachers: Glass is an extraordinary substance. Its chemical structure enables enable certain wave lengths such as light to pass through it while it is relatively  opaque to infrared and ultraviolet waves. It is similar to air to the extent it forms some barriers to higher-energy waves (ultra violet) and lower-energy waves (infrared) while it is transparent to ‘medium”-energy waves (light). 

Note: We are only talking about a tiny percentage of the measured radiation spectrum e.g. light only occupies less than one millionth of a percent of the measured radiation spectrum.

Its use in telescopes and microscopes enabled quantum leaps in our understanding of the stars and microbes. It widens, lightens, brightens and adds colour to our world.  At the same time, our images of glass itself and of the air as glass may blind us to the reality of our impact on the world.

In communicating Climate Change issues, it is important to remain mindful we are attempting to evoke images of variable gases, constituting tiny proportions of the air, affecting huge transfers of thermal energy using air’s ability to move at high speeds. Most people associate glass with uniform and rigid structures.

This image of the atmosphere as stable and inert is one promoted by the PR industry for fossil fuel sector as part of its campaign obscure the possible impact of human activities on our climate. In general,“energy experts”, climatologists and policy makers fail to understand the wider implications of their equation of air with glass. Hence these well-meaning people may form major barriers to the popular understanding of climate processes.

Chapter Seven - The House of Life -Great Glass Wonders.        

Bonus Joules and the Knowledge Economy: All images on this site are copyright.