“there is almost no difference in “warming” that CO2 should cause”
Interesting post. Seems like you know something about the subject.
The Wikipedia entry on greenhouse gases says that water vapor is the major greenhouse gas, but water vapor is not included in the charts they give ranking the various greenhouse gases. That omission is puzzling to me.
My reply is that there is plenty of water in the oceans. If some evaporates why does that not cause warming that causes even more evaporation in a runaway cycle that makes the temperature skyrocket? The answer is that almost all of the IR energy from the sun gets absorbed by water vapor so increasing the amount of water vapor, or CO2, does not increase warming because all of the IR energy was being absorbed anyway. The temperature does not continue to climb because there is a feedback cycle. The long wavelength IR radiated from Earth temperature warm sources is not absorbed by water vapor or CO2 and gets radiated by the atmospheric gasses and the Earth's surface back into space. Water vapor does not continue to climb because of rain. Rain storms release the heat that caused evaporation when the water vapor condenses into water droplets and this longer wavelength IR also radiates in all directions so half radiates into space. The temperature reaches equilibrium that is based on the Sun's output energy which is inconvenient for those who want to control energy use (the means of production).