West Main

When you adjust the thermostat on your home air conditioner, please be aware that the big job of air conditioning the Earth has already been done by our benevolent Creator – gratis. Our own efforts to achieve temperature comfort are costly and feeble in comparison. And our lack of thankfulness for this blessing from above is limited by our unawareness of our Maker’s many marvelous designs. This writing is about how heat from the Sun is being redistributed to moderate what would otherwise be extreme temperatures over most of the Earth.

Although our current writings are about the design of our atmosphere, understanding its part in air conditioning requires that we first look at how our globe has been positioned to receive the warmth of sunlight. This will then help us to understand the roles of both our atmosphere and oceans in fine tuning the distribution of this heat more evenly over the Earth.

Our spinning, orbiting Earth

If the Earth were not spinning, the sunward face of the Earth would roast while the other side would be deadly frigid. Very little of the Earth would be habitable. Our day and night cycles limit unbearable heat and cold buildup.

If the spin axis of the Earth was not tilted in its orbital plane, the resulting extreme temperatures at the poles and equator would greatly limit the latitudes where life could flourish. If it were tilted more than it is, that would cause other grave problems.

Tilt, together with the orbiting of the Earth around the Sun, counters the buildup of summertime heat and wintertime cold. Hurricanes, for example, result from the accumulations of summer heat in the tropics that explode in the form of cyclonic wet energetic air masses that move toward the poles. If we think our hurricane season is fearsome, consider what it might be for an Earth that was not orbiting the Sun, resulting in unlimited summers.

Whether in the design of the human body, or the placing of Earth in the solar system, it is a gross understatement to say that our God is a master of orderly complexity. In this case, please add in the distribution of land and water over the face of the Earth. Since land and water differ greatly in the way they soak up heat, these also have a part in air conditioning.

Our atmosphere’s part

In our next writing, we will narrow our focus to our atmosphere’s part in air conditioning the Earth. It can be summarized by noting that complex air currents carry heat from hot places to cold places, and back again for a fresh load of heat. If the Earth were not spinning, an oversimplified model would have air currents rising at the equator and flowing aloft toward the poles and returning at low levels back to the equator, along north-south lines. However, if you will stay with us for the real ride given to heat by air, many more wonders are still in store.

– James Gibbs

Ice Cream Social and Southern Oregon Christian Camp Highlights  -- Come join us for a wonderful evening this Sunday at 6:00 p.m. as we review the camp highlights of the past week and enjoy some homemade ice cream. Please bring lots of your favorite homemade ice cream to share.

Wedding News  --   Don and Zana Walker are pleased to announce the marriage of their daughter, Hannah, to Keshaun King on Tuesday, June 25. They will be living in Medford.