Here is another reason why "greens" are so wrong about the world.
The term "greenhouse gas" BTW is attributed to Dr. Carl Sagan. Dr. Sagan was attempting to describe why Venus was so much hotter than scientists expected it to be. He pointed out that CO2 has a much higher thermal capacity than the N2 and O2 that make up our atmosphere. Unfortunately Dr. Sagan came from Brooklyn and there ain't many greenhouses in Brooklyn so he never learned that greenhouses work by limiting convection and not by concentrating CO2. Therefore we are stuck with an inaccurate term that doesn't explain anything.
Combustion takes hydrocarbons and breaks them down into water vapor (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Water vapor is about 140% worse, molecule for molecule, as a "greenhouse gas" than carbon dioxide. Short chain hydrocarbons like methane, butane and propane put a higher ratio of water vapor versus carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than longer chain hydrocarbons like heptane and octane.
You see, by converting your homes to burn natural gas you were actually putting more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere than if you had burned heating oil. By burning methane you are putting much more of the deadly greenhouse gas H2O into the atmosphere
Of course with natural gas you are also dumping tons fewer particulates into the air but hey, this is about "global warming" and "greenhouse gasses", smog was last decade's problem!
:o)
Greenhouse gases are not “bad”. They are essential. If there were no greenhouse gases, the earth would be far too cold for humans. By the way, CO2 is only present in trace amounts - the latest estimate being about 380 parts per million. Water vapor is far more common.
The media, politicians, and the public are generally ignorant of basic facts. Those who talk about “fighting climate change” are airheads tilting at windmills. If they want to “fight” climate change, then they had best figure out a way to control the sun’s activity. The recent absence of sun spots suggests we may be in for “global cooling” despite all the noise being made about warming.