lee wrote on Nov 14^th, 2013 at 7:11pm:

You sound like you think you know. I was like that once.

Are you actually qualified or do you just heed sources that say what you want to believe? Confirmation bias is difficult to avoid.

Can you spot the missing GHG from this pie chart?

http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/global.html

note the (dot),

Water vapour is in fact the largest Greenhouse Gas. It rates a mention at the EPA as well as lowly wiki.

muso wrote on Nov 15^th, 2013 at 3:53pm:



I don't get what you mean.

Do you mean water vapour is a lagging indicator of AGW, as is CO2?

BTW, I haven't found a study yet that has determined a tipping point at which CO2 flip-flops between lagging/leading indication.

lee wrote on Nov 16^th, 2013 at 11:58am:


That's because you read the wrong kind of blog. It's not a question of lagging or leading. It's an equilibrium.

If the temperature drops, water vapour drops out of the atmosphere. Really cold air is very dry. In other words, as the atmosphere heats up due to one forcing or another, more water vapour evaporates and ends up in the atmosphere.  It's a feedback, whereas carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and sulphur hexafluoride are all greenhouse gases that give rise to radiative forcing.

If you cool down the atmosphere, those gases stay in the atmosphere, whereas water vapour drops out.

The two major positive forcings are solar forcings and greenhouse gas forcings.

Do you understand how greenhouse gases work?

If you don't understand forcings and feedbacks , might I suggest that your attempts at self education in the subject are arse about. You should start with the basics.

These blogs that you read are engineered to confuse the gullible, the downright silly and the senile, but they often catch out others.  I don't blame them. Real science makes their head hurt. Simple seductive lies are much easier on the grey matter.

'Water vapor is one of the most important elements of the climate system. A greenhouse gas, like carbon dioxide, it represents around 80 percent of total greenhouse gas mass in the atmosphere and 90 percent of greenhouse gas volume.

Water vapor and clouds account for 66 to 85 percent of the greenhouse effect, compared to a range of 9 to 26 percent for CO2. So why all the attention on carbon dioxide and its ilk? Is water vapor the real culprit causing global warming?


Source: yaleclimatemediaforum

But that was just a quick google.

edit:
'If one pursues the question of how much of the greenhouse effect is due to each of the various greenhouse gases one finds a perplexing variety of answers in the literature. One source says that 95 percent of the greenhouse effect is due to water vapor, another 98 percent. These figures may be referring to the proportion, by weight or volume, of water vapor among the greenhouse gases of the atmosphere. Another source says that proportion water vapor is responsible for is between 36 and 70 percent. Water droplets in clouds account for another 10 to 15 percent so water as liquid or vapor accounts for between 46 and 85 percent of the greenhouse effect. The same source attributes 9 to 26 percent of the greenhouse effect to carbon dioxide (CO2). '

sjsu.edu/ faculty

And seeing as we apparently have more ice and an hiatus, CO2 can't be having such a great extent. All this at a time of increasing CO2. So CO2 either doesn't have as much effect as postulated, or there is a counterbalancing effect that the climate scientists have figured out yet.

I am not sure that man has attained omniscience.

More water vapor, more water to fall on the continent of Antarctica and freezes. Lower sea levels. More water vapor, travelling further. Makes inland lakes. Lower sea levels.