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http://www.clearlight.com/~mhieb/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html

Mr170IQ,

95%, excuse me. Please see the link attached and tell me how I am mistaken. This website has been my old faithful for explaining the global myth of man made global warming. Are they wrong?

I'll be less vocal in the future with my ignorance.

Water Vapor Rules
the Greenhouse System

Just how much of the "Greenhouse Effect" is caused by human activity?

It is about 0.28%, if water vapor is taken into account-- about 5.53%, if not.

This point is so crucial to the debate over global warming that how water vapor is or isn't factored into an analysis of Earth's greenhouse gases makes the difference between describing a significant human contribution to the greenhouse effect, or a negligible one.

Water vapor constitutes Earth's most significant greenhouse gas, accounting for about 95% of Earth's greenhouse effect (4). Interestingly, many "facts and figures' regarding global warming completely ignore the powerful effects of water vapor in the greenhouse system, carelessly (perhaps, deliberately) overstating human impacts as much as 20-fold.

Water vapor is 99.999% of natural origin. Other atmospheric greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and miscellaneous other gases (CFC's, etc.), are also mostly of natural origin (except for the latter, which is mostly anthropogenic).

Human activites contribute slightly to greenhouse gas concentrations through farming, manufacturing, power generation, and transportation. However, these emissions are so dwarfed in comparison to emissions from natural sources we can do nothing about, that even the most costly efforts to limit human emissions would have a very small-- perhaps undetectable-- effect on global climate.

For those interested in more details a series of data sets and charts have been assembled below in a 5-step statistical synopsis.

Note that the first two steps ignore water vapor.

When I said "I don't know what planet you are from" I was making a joke based on your statement that "our atmosphere is 98% water vapor"

Earth's atmosphere is not 98% water vapor. An atmosphere consisting of 98% water vapor would not support mammalian life. You can produce a sample of 98% water vapor atmosphere in a pressure cooker, but you would not want to breathe it.

Earth's atmosphere is 78% N2, 21% O2, 0.9% Argon, plus "trace gasses". N2, O2, and Argon are not considered greenhouse gasses because they do not absorb a significant amount of infrared light.

The molecules in the atmosphere which ARE considered greenhouse gasses are, in order of concentration:
H2O - water vapor
CO2 - carbon dioxide
CH4 - Methane
NOx - Nitrogen oxides

Of these "greenhouse gasses", water vapor does contribute more than 95%, but it is as silly to claim that "the atmosphere is 98% water vapor" as it would be to claim that "blood is mostly iron"

Human activites contribute slightly to greenhouse gas concentrations through farming, manufacturing, power generation, and transportation. However, these emissions are so dwarfed in comparison to emissions from natural sources we can do nothing about, that even the most costly efforts to limit human emissions would have a very small-- perhaps undetectable-- effect on global climate.

There are also natural sinks (sinks absorb, sources emit), such that if human activities were absent, the sinks would cause a net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere.