Monday, July 13, 2015

Forget about CO2, Water Vapor is in charge

The greenies have been beating the drum for years about CO2 as a green house gas in the earth's atmosphere.  A green house gas blocks Infra Red (heat) radiation from escaping from the earth into outer space.  Burning of wood, coal, oil, and natural gas releases vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.  The CO2 level has increased since the industrial revolution, from some 300 parts per million to nearly 400 parts per million today.  The greenies believe that this is cause of  "global warming" and are pushing for expensive economy wrecking measures to reduce the CO2 level.
   Trouble is, ordinary water vapor is just a strong a greenhouse gas as CO2.  And there is a LOT more water vapor out there than CO2.  According to this, water vapor is 2 to 3  percent of the atmosphere, call it 20,000 to 30,000 parts per million.  300 or 400 parts million of CO2 just doesn't matter compared to that.
   Since the earth's surface is 3/4 ocean, the water vapor isn't going away.
   The greenies claim that water vapor is different, as the global warming comes on, more water evaporates and the water vapor content of the atmosphere goes up.  But this is just another way of saying that water vapor is  a stronger greenhouse gas than  CO2, which means that CO2 matters even LESS, all things being equal.
    Needless to say, I don't hold with poverty enhancers like "cap and trade", the "war on coal", bans on fracking, Corporate Average Fuel Economy, handouts for battery cars, regulation of wood stove emissions, or the alcohol mandate for motor fuel.  These things make life more expensive for us plain citizens and don't cool the world.  To say nothing of the power handed to bureaucrats to jerk us around.

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