Water vapor accounts for a whopping 90% or more of Earth's greenhouse effect! CO2 very minor player

several sources

[ETL]

Three article excerpts...

From JunkScience.com:

So, greenhouse [effect] is all about carbon dioxide, right?

Wrong. The most important players on the greenhouse stage are water vapor and clouds [clouds of course aren't gas, but high level ones do act to trap heat from escaping, while low-lying cumulus clouds tend to reflect sunlight and thereby help cool the planet -etl]. Carbon dioxide has been increased to about 0.038% of the atmosphere (possibly from about 0.028% pre-Industrial Revolution) while water in its various forms ranges from 0% to 4% of the atmosphere and its properties vary by what form it is in and even at what altitude it is found in the atmosphere.

In simple terms the bulk of Earth's greenhouse effect is due to water vapor by virtue of its abundance. Water accounts for about 90% of the Earth's greenhouse effect -- perhaps 70% is due to water vapor and about 20% due to clouds (mostly water droplets), some estimates put water as high as 95% of Earth's total tropospheric greenhouse effect (e.g., Freidenreich and Ramaswamy, 'Solar Radiation Absorption by Carbon Dioxide, Overlap with Water, and a Parameterization for General Circulation Models,' Journal of Geophysical Research 98 (1993):7255-7264).

The remaining portion comes from carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, ozone and miscellaneous other 'minor greenhouse gases.' As an example of the relative importance of water it should be noted that changes in the relative humidity on the order of 1.3-4% are equivalent to the effect of doubling CO2.

http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/
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From Geocraft.com:

Water Vapor Rules the Greenhouse System

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 activities 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.

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html
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From ScienceDaily.com:

Water Vapor Confirmed As Major Player In Climate Change

ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2008) — Water vapor is known to be Earth's most abundant greenhouse gas, but the extent of its contribution to global warming has been debated. Using recent NASA satellite data, researchers have estimated more precisely than ever the heat-trapping effect of water in the air, validating the role of the gas as a critical component of climate change.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081117193013.htm

[aomagrat]

Dihydrogen Monoxide is extremely dangerous. Check out the facts here.

Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division

[Oberon]

Not only that, Dihydrogen monoxide is one of the chief components of acid rain.

[Izzy Dunne]

Egads - it's in my BASEMENT!

EEEEEAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGH!

[traderrob6]

Dihydrogen Monoxide asphyxia is the second leading cause of death in children!

[Kartographer]

My stupid neighbors spray the stuff on their lawns!!!!

[The Old Hoosier]

Where does that chart come from?

[MrB]

Great concise resource here:

Global Warming: A Closer look at the numbers

[MrB]

I think that’s the same chart as in my link above.

Yes, man’s co2 contribution to the greenhouse effect is ZERO POINT ONE ONE SEVEN PERCENT.

[ETL]

THE ACQUITTAL OF CARBON DIOXIDE
by Jeffrey A. Glassman, PhD

ABSTRACT:

"Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere [historically] is the product of oceanic respiration due to the well-known but under-appreciated solubility pump. Carbon dioxide rises out of warm ocean waters where it is added to the atmosphere. There it is mixed with residual and accidental CO2, and circulated, to be absorbed into the sink of the cold ocean waters. Next the thermohaline circulation carries the CO2-rich sea water deep into the ocean. A millennium later it appears at the surface in warm waters, saturated by lower pressure and higher temperature, to be exhausted back into the atmosphere. Throughout the past 420 millennia, comprising four interglacial periods, the Vostok record of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is imprinted with, and fully characterized by, the physics of the solubility of CO2 in water, along with the lag in the deep ocean circulation.

Notwithstanding that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, atmospheric carbon dioxide has neither caused nor amplified global temperature increases. Increased carbon dioxide has been an effect of global warming, not a cause. Technically, carbon dioxide is a lagging proxy for ocean temperatures. When global temperature, and along with it, ocean temperature rises, the physics of solubility causes atmospheric CO2 to increase.

If increases in carbon dioxide, or any other greenhouse gas, could have in turn raised global temperatures, the positive feedback would have been catastrophic. While the conditions for such a catastrophe were present in the Vostok record from natural causes, the runaway event did not occur. Carbon dioxide does not accumulate in the atmosphere."

http://www.rocketscientistsjournal.com/2006/10/co2_acquittal.html
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The graph above represents temperature and CO2 levels over the past 400,000 years. It is the same exact data Al Gore and the rest of the man-made global warmers refer to. The blue line is temps, the red, CO2 levels. The deep valleys represent 4 separate glaciation/ice-age periods, approximately 100,000 years apart. Look carefully at the historical relationship between temps and CO2 levels (the present is on the right hand side of the graph) and keep in mind that Gore claims this data is the 'proof' that CO2 has warmed the earth in the past. But does this data indeed show this? Nope. In fact, rising CO2 levels all throughout this 400,000-year period actually *followed* temperature increases, lagging behind by an average of 800 years! So it couldn't have been CO2 that got Earth out of these past glaciations. Yet Gore continually and dishonestly uses this same data as "evidence" of a *positive* historical correlation between CO2 and temps. Furthermore, and importantly, the subsequent CO2 level increases (due to dissolved CO2 being released from warming oceans) never did lead to additional warming, the so-called "run-away greenhouse effect" that Al Gore and company continue warning us about. In short, there is little if any evidence that CO2 had ever led to any significant global warming when the levels were within 10-15 times of what they are today. -etl
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"The above chart shows the range of global temperature through the last 500 million years. There is no statistical correlation between the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through the last 500 million years and the temperature record in this interval. In fact, one of the highest levels of carbon dioxide concentration occurred during a major ice age that occurred about 450 million years ago [Myr]. Carbon dioxide concentrations at that time were about 15 times higher than at present." [also see 180 million years ago, same thing happened]:
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=010405M

[ETL]

Yes, man’s co2 contribution to the greenhouse effect is ZERO POINT ONE ONE SEVEN PERCENT.

Excellent point. Adding to the fact that CO2 is such a minor player in Earth's greenhouse system, only a fraction of it is related to human activities.

[Zack Attack]

Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide NOW!!

Wanna sign the petition? LOL.

[Vob]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u03QcymdCtg&feature=player_embedded

vob

[6SJ7]

Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide NOW!!

It's highly corrosive and will dissolve many substances placed in it. It can cause death in humans if breathed. Dangerous stuff! Congress has to regulate it pronto!

[DarthVader]

Bookmark

[Mich Patriot]

Water vapor??? I use a small humidifier in my bedroom that I use in the winter. The unit produces, you guessed it...WATER VAPOR!!! Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

[Wonder Warthog]

"They push for fuel cells, which exhaust wapor vapor, as alternative green energy. They are so obsessed by their agenda that they ignore facts that are pertinent."

Burning any fossil fuel gives off water vapor as well as CO2. Where do you think all those hydrogen atoms attached to the carbon chain go??

[PeterPrinciple]

ok, folks I need someone with a thinking cap:

The term “green house” gas is used. That puts an image in our mind as most of us have been in a green house or in a hot car. One old research article from the early century that I can not find now, asserted that it was the PHYSICAL BARRIER of the glass that retained the heat more than anything else. Are clouds that much of a physical barrier?

[Right Wing Assault]

Drain the oceans immediately!

Better yet, cap them. Put a huge, sturdy roof over them and cover it with dirt. No more hurricanes! More area to grow crops! Don't even THINK of any negative unintended consequences.

What a wonderfully expensive project obie could set up using stimulus funds. He could accomplish two goals at once: bankrupt the country faster and 'save the planet.'

I hope they don't read this. They'll probably try to do it.

[ETL]

Clouds, which basically consists of tiny water droplets (not gas), specifically the high, thin variety, AND water vapor (gaseous water), act as barriers to heat escaping. Gaseous CO2 and water vapor, I would imagine, are less of a “physical barrier” than the high, thin, stratus-type clouds. Interesting question. I’ll look into it when I have more time.

[Right Wing Assault]

Here’s some good info:

http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/