Monday, February 27, 2017

NASA Confirms Water Vapor Major Player in Climate Change?

Really, NASA confirms? What's shocking is thinking water vapor's role needed confirmation!

What is the fuss all about?  Mathematically man's contribution to global green house gases adds up to roughly a quarter of 1% of the total green house effect or radiative forcing.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), CFC's, etc... are the only gases we talk about when discussing green house gases. Crazy when it's widely known that water vapor is the seven ton elephant in the room representing roughly 95% of all green house gasses.

Why is water "vapour" only mentioned in passing in the last IPCC report?  Maybe because it would be implausible to suggest water "vapour" is bad?  If you search all 222 pages of Climate Change 2013 - The Physical Science Basis - Summery for Policy Makers "water vapour" is mentioned 85 times, of which 83 of those it's not being talked about as a green house gas.

"As the largest contributor to the natural greenhouse effect, water vapour plays an essential role in the Earth’s climate." (page 153)  Largest contributor? The IPCC says it's the largest contributor but it's only mentioned twice as a green house gas?

CO2 on the other hand is mentioned 452 times not once mentioning increased CO2 is making our planet greener. Why is something mentioned 452 times when the total increase since 1900 is 1 part in 10,000?

To put this in perspective we would need a 275% increase in today's levels of CO2 just to reach the levels commercial greenhouses artificially create (by burning propane and natural gas) to increase plant growth in some cases by as much as 50%. That's right commercial green houses buy bulk CO2 or burn natural gas to boost daytime CO2 levels. In some areas it's gotten so bad that breweries can't get the CO2 they need because pot growers have used up the local supply.

"97% of all scientists" -  I've researched this percentage and blogged about where this quote comes from and regardless of what some think just saying it over and over doesn't make it true. Hell based on the main assumption I too would be included in the 97%. However, as of today I'm more convinced than ever that the 33% increase in CO2 (300 to 400 ppm) isn't as bad as we have been lead to believe. Yes man is contributing to warming but we are not by any measure the primary driver but unlike those on the far left and right I'll keep an open mind and hope that science continues to search for the truth.

Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change

“Global warming” is not a global crisis