Listener Question: Snow Words |
 Dave Thurlow, Host |
What if earth didn't have a moon? What would weather be like? What would life be like? Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow and this is The Weather Notebook. Dr. Neil Comins, is an astronomer who is well suited to answer what weather would be like if the moon didn't exist because he wrote a book called "What if the moon didn't exist." He speaks first about wind.
NC: the winds would be substantially stronger. The patterns would be much more east west, sustained winds are probably going to be in excess of 50mph more or less everywhere."
Strong east to west winds would come from a faster rotating earth, which it would be without the moon. Average winds of fifty miles per hour! That would change the earth's biosphere and lifeforms may have never developed. The atmosphere would consist mainly of carbon dioxide and be 100 times denser than the air we breathe now, because there would be no life to help convert the carbon dioxide to oxygen. But wait, there's more! The thick atmosphere would make for a better global greenhouse:
NC: The primary gases for the greenhouse effect are water and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and therefore, that world without the moon with its much thicker carbon dioxide atmosphere would have been a much hotter place.
So, without the moon, the earth would be windier, hotter and there would be no life forms as we know them, including people who make Subarus or work at the National Science Foundation or host radio shows.