Reply To: Bill Gates

[Brian H]

Viking Coder wrote:

H2O is the exact equivalent of CO2 for greenhousing

No. It isn’t. CO2 absorbs spectra that H2O doesn’t & vice versa. CO2 has a complete blockout of infrared radiation in a band where H2O doesn’t absorb any, and again – vice versa This is why a positive feedback cycle from an increased CO2 concentration is a crucial concept to understand.

H2O’s long-term atmospheric concentration is based solely on temperature (Clausius-Clapeyron relation) with any deviations quickly resolving away through either evaporation or precipitation. There is no such “quick fix” process for atmospheric CO2 concentration. This is why water vapor is referred to as a passive feedback agent.

http://www.iitap.iastate.edu/gccourse/forcing/spectrum.html

This has been known for over 40 years.

http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0477312
Report Date : Feb 1962

http://skepticalscience.com/global-cooling-january-2007-to-january-2008.htm

2007’s dramatic cooling is driven by La Nina which historically has caused similar drops in global temperature and should recede in mid-2008.

TSI (Total Solar Irradiance) needs to drop considerably to be considered the driver of 2007 cooling.

Satellite measurements show no dramatic drop in TSI over the past several years. Instead, the solar cycle is following its usual 11 year cycle, flattening out as it reaches solar minimum.

The moral of the story – don’t use short term weather patterns to draw conclusions about long term climate trends.