[ctdonath2]

water vapor makes up 98% of our atmosphere

Uh, no. But you've got the right idea.
Snagged via Google:

Average composition of the atmosphere up to an altitude of 25 km.

Gas Name	Chemical Formula	Percent Volume
Nitrogen	N2	78.08%
Oxygen	O2	20.95%
*Water	H2O	0 to 4%
Argon	Ar	0.93%
*Carbon Dioxide	CO2	0.0360%
Neon	Ne	0.0018%
Helium	He	0.0005%
*Methane	CH4	0.00017%
Hydrogen	H2	0.00005%
*Nitrous Oxide	N2O	0.00003%
*Ozone	O3	0.000004%

While I'll grant that the world may be warming, and a bazillion cars spewing exhaust does have an impact, that impact is only a tiny part of what happens naturally. One volcano will blow more CO2 & other gludge into the atmosphere than several years of exhaust.

You do have a good point: there's about 10x as much H2O than CO2 in the atmosphere, and the former causes significantly more "global warming" per molecule than the latter. Interestingly, the only viable "green" alternative to oil (fuel cells) will replace CO2 spewage with H2O. Do the greens really want that?

[Tenacious 1]

The "water vapor" sited is calculating N2, O2 and H2O. The most prevelent. Some say, the balance of chemicals in our air is insignificant except at ground level.

But your table puts it in perspective better than words.

Thank you.

[megatherium]

One volcano will blow more CO2

Volcanoes can have a real impact on climate, but it turns out on average that humans put 150 times more CO2 into the atmosphere than volcanoes. http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Hazards/What/VolGas/volgas.html

[metmom]

I find it hard to argue that the earth warmed slightly for a short period of time but it's the reaction that I take issue with. They don't know what the result is going to be and they have yet to really demonstrate why we should be in a tailspin over it.

Even IF (and that's a big IF) the icecaps were to melt and raise the ocean level, it would happen gradually and people would have time to move. It's not like some big tsunami would come crashing down on all the world's cities at once.

Plus, I'd like to see a longer growing season. Think of how much more food could be produced to feed the starving people of the world. And we'd be using fewer fossil fuels to heat with and conserving natural resources. Not to mention that it's easier to get around in nice weather than this snow and slop we deal with every winter.

Global warming? I say, *Bring it on*.

[cogitator]

One volcano will blow more CO2 & other gludge into the atmosphere than several years of exhaust.

Regarding CO2, this is incorrect. Volcanic emissions of CO2 about about 1/150th of fossil fuel energy CO2 emissions. Volcanoes emit about 1/4 of the SO2 (sulfur dioxide) emitted by coal burning in an average year -- a large eruption like Pinatubo will increase the volcanic emissions of SO2 for the year in which the big eruption occurred.