The Greenhouse Gas We Can't Control

 


When we think of climate-killing greenhouse gas we usually focus on carbon dioxide, CO2. Some add methane, CH4, to the mix. It's a far more potent but shorter lived gas than CO2. Some include nitrous oxide, ozone and chloroflourocarbons. Those are all chemicals humans, their industry and agriculture, emit.

If you took those all together there's still another greenhouse gas that, alone, is twice as powerful as all the others combined. It's water vapor.

"Water vapor accounts for 60-70% of the greenhouse effect while CO2 accounts for 25% —a notable difference when numbers alone are compared. It would seem then that water vapor should be climatologists’ primary focus. However, water vapor cannot be controlled by human intervention; it is simply a product of its environment.

"As the atmospheric temperature rises, more water is evaporated from ground storage, such as that found in our rivers, oceans, soils, and reservoirs. The released water vapor becomes a greenhouse gas where it then absorbs more energy radiated from the Earth and thus warms the atmosphere. The warmer atmosphere results in further water evaporation and the cycle continues. This mechanism is known as a Positive Feedback Loop.

"While water vapor may be the most dominant greenhouse gas by mass and volume, it certainly is not the primary culprit responsible for global warming. Rather it is part of an amplifying effect. As other greenhouse gases such as CO2, warm the atmosphere, the air is able to hold more water vapor. The water vapor traps more heat and further warms the atmosphere. Human activities have increased CO2 output, and responsible human activities can reduce its production. Unlike water vapor that returns to Earth as precipitation within one week of entering the atmosphere, CO2 stays in the atmosphere between 50-200 years. Therefore, the best way to control global warming is to reduce CO2 emissions."

Man made warming is thought responsible for already increasing atmospheric water vapor levels by 14 per cent. The longer we wait to zero our CO2 and methane emissions the warmer our atmosphere will become and the wetter it will be.

A warmer, wetter atmosphere provides fuel (energy) for severe storm events of increasing frequency, intensity and duration. Hurricanes, tornadoes, circulation patterns, flooding (and drought elsewhere). It's messing us up and it may encourage powerful countries to resort to geo-engineering options that devastate weaker, poorer regions. 

It's the water vapor threat that could undermine the global consensus critical to averting the climate emergency and lay bare our leaders' grotesquely pollyannaish approach to this, our most existential challenge.

Comments

  1. Northern PoVOctober 16, 2021 at 10:42 AM

    I had a very serious scientist (PhD physics) explain his climate denialism based on this trope.

    My ignorant, lay-man reply was basically "Rather it is part of an amplifying effect." that he scoffed at.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibOctober 16, 2021 at 2:51 PM

      Well, NPoV, we've seen plenty of licensed doctors dismiss Covid-19. There will always be a small minority that, for any number of reasons, reject a consensus. Almost never do they even attempt to refute the science. Denialism has no place in the scientific method and should be taken for exactly what it is.

      Delete

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