NASA and even the recent IPCC report says water vapor is by far the biggest player in keeping the planet warm which lines up with common sense. Deserts being scorching hot during the day and wicked cold at night has a lot to do with the amount of water vapor in the air and don't get me started regarding clouds. As far as over all temperature nothing drives this more than humidity and humidity is directly linked to vegetation. So the real question is... if water vapor makes up 95% of all green house gasses why is it barely mentioned as a green house gas?
Because unlike carbon it's hard to vilify water!
Waging a ware against water vapor doesn't clean up the environment!
So basically I'm saying the man made increase in CO2, compared to the atmosphere on whole, is NOT directly responsible for global warming that we have seen for about the last 150 years. Keep in mind, contrary to what Al Gore would have you to believe, the 400,000 year ice core data (now 800,000 years) shows the increase in CO2 thought to have caused the temperature increase actually lags said increase by an average of 800 years!
So what's going on?
I contend such a small overall increase in atmospheric CO2 is not capable of "measurable" change in our climate. Even as a powerful green house gas, man's total contribution to the green house effect about one quarter of one percent.
So what's going on?
The 100 ppm increase in CO2 since 1900 is nothing as far as green house gasses go but it's a 33% increase in a gas that plants are starving for!
This recent increase in CO2 has resulted in a note worthy increase in plant food and resulting growth world wide. This greening of the planet is noticeable from space and NASA has successfully documented this world wide.
All of this is quantifiable and there is no doubt that a roughly 20-30% increase in world wide plant productivity is having an measurable impact on water vapor, weather weather patterns and eventually climate
How ironic would it be if it turns out that environmentalists saving the rain forest, not burning coal is causing the melting of glaciers, shifting weather patterns and eventually the drowning of our low lying coastal populations.
PS This idea hit me as I was dreaming about Mars and a recent study that showed it's likely possible to grow potatoes there.
