  In this paper we discuss the meaning of feedback parameter, greenhouse effect
and transient climate response usually related to the globally averaged energy
balance model of Schneider and Mass. After scrutinizing this model and the
corresponding planetary radiation balance we state that (a) the this globally
averaged energy balance model is flawed by unsuitable physical considerations,
(b) the planetary radiation balance for an Earth in the absence of an
atmosphere is fraught by the inappropriate assumption of a uniform surface
temperature, the so-called radiative equilibrium temperature of about 255 K,
and (c) the effect of the radiative anthropogenic forcing, considered as a
perturbation to the natural system, is much smaller than the uncertainty
involved in the solution of the model of Schneider and Mass. This uncertainty
is mainly related to the empirical constants suggested by various authors and
used for predicting the emission of infrared radiation by the Earth's skin.
Furthermore, after inserting the absorption of solar radiation by atmospheric
constituents and the exchange of sensible and latent heat between the Earth and
the atmosphere into the model of Schneider and Mass the surface temperatures
become appreciably lesser than the radiative equilibrium temperature. Moreover,
neither the model of Schneider and Mass nor the Dines-type two-layer energy
balance model for the Earth-atmosphere system, both contain the planetary
radiation balance for an Earth in the absence of an atmosphere as an asymptotic
solution, do not provide evidence for the existence of the so-called
atmospheric greenhouse effect if realistic empirical data are used.
