Atmospheric reality on Global Warming. Is the earth self regulating?

Question

A fact we all have heard, 2/3 rds of the surface of the earth is covered by Water, But an overlooked fact although rather obvious is that 100% of the earth' surface is covered by Atmosphere. Now, should the temperature of the atmosphere rise the ability of that same atmosphere to contain and hold water vapor also rises. Correct me if I am wrong. I can't quote to you the formula but I am fairly certain of the fact that warmer air can hold more moisture. Just look at the difference in cloud formations for Winter and Summer.

So the warmer ocean evaporates more H2O and the warmer atmosphere retains more H2O vapor and these two things working together reflects more Sunlight back out to space. Will this not result in a net cooling effect, thus self regulating the earths temperature?

Answer 1

Sun's rays hit the Earth's atmosphere and the surface of the Earth, approximately 70 percent of the energy stays on the planet, absorbed by land, oceans, plants and other things. The other 30 percent is reflected into space by clouds, snow fields and other reflective surfaces. But even the 70 percent that gets through doesn't stay on earth forever (otherwise the Earth would become a blazing fireball). The Earth's oceans and land masses eventually radiate heat back out. Some of this heat makes it into space. The rest of it ends up getting absorbed when it hits certain things in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, methane gas and water vapor. After these components in our atmosphere absorb all this heat, they emit energy (also in the form of heat). The heat that doesn't make it out through Earth's atmosphere keeps the planet warmer than it is in outer space, because more energy is coming in through the atmosphere than is going out. This is all part of the greenhouse effect that keeps the Earth warm. Further more humans are adding more absorber (CO2 etc) and reducing reflector (Ice) thus affecting earth heat regulation.

Answer 2

Actually it has the opposite effect.  Water actually is a greenhouse gas.  More vapor in the air means a warmer planet which means even more vapor in the air and an even warmer planet, et cetera.

Answer 3

No no no. Water vapor and rising temperature of the oceans are symptoms of the greenhouse effect caused by carbon, i.e. carbon dioxide (mostly produced by burning fossil fuels). When carbon dioxide reach the upper atmosphere, it destroys the ozone layer that is alike a shield against the heat and radiation from the sun. Excessive carbon compounds in the upper atmosphere acts like the glass roof like the green house. The ocean temperature has risen about 3F since the end of 19th century. It doesn't sound like much but it makes a huge impact on our weather system. The glaciers of the world are receding at an unprecedented rate. As the glaciers melt and go into our oceans, it reduces the salinity of the ocean water which warms the surface temperature of the ocean water. This causes increases in hurricanes and tornados. And the severity of it. We can emit as much water vapor but it is emission of carbon that causes global warming. We have nuclear phobia but it is the best method now to reduce carbon emissions, in addition to producing electrictiy by solar, wind, ocean waves, etc. One of our best hope is developing coal fired generators without releasing any carbon. We have abundance of coal and if this technology is developed, we will virtually have litle demand for oil.

Answer 4

Self regulation  is a fantasy.  As long as the human species adds all its detritus to the air, water and natural resources are consumed and placed into the air, water, etc.  if all human input was removed from the natural environment it is self regulating system.  

pesticides, herbicides, fertilizes  from urban lawns and farm land move  into the water cycle.  Those never disappear...As a top predator  we consume a variety of long chain hydrocarbon and they are stored in you liver.  They will, at some future time, cause illness and death.   We ingest it in our water, food, and air.  

We must come to realize that we are a part of the natural system.  We can not live outside that system if we want it to continue  life as we know it.

Answer 5

No.  The increased water vapor is a powerful greenhouse gas that holds heat in, accelerating global warming.  Clouds are a mixed bag, high ones cool, but low ones hold heat in. (notice how a cloudy night is warmer than a clear one?)

James Lovelock is perhaps the leading expert on the self regulating power of the Earth.  He's written several books about it, most exalting the self regulating power.

He says global warming is more than the Earth can handle.  His latest book, The Revenge of Gaia, is a powerful plea for massive construction of nuclear power plants to stave off global warming.

Coming from a strong environmentalist like Lovelock, that's powerful.

EDIT - Once again clouds are a mixed bag.  Yes they reflect some sunlight, but, unless they're high up, that doesn't help much.  Low lying clouds can reflect heat up, and CO2 will (in effect, it's a more complicated process of absorption/reemission in all directions) reflect it back down.

At night, they simply hold heat in.  Once again, your own experience of clear/cloudy nights tells you that.

Bottom line:  Scientists can't calculate the effects of clouds completely, but they can go either way.  The extra water vapor in the air is a powerful greenhouse gas, which causes unequivocal warming.

The chances of a "net cooling effect" are VERY small here.

Answer 6

You're exactly right.  Recent measurements of Earthshine show our albedo is increasing.  The cause:  Increased cloud cover.  It seems water vapor has a funny way of being both a contributing factor AND a limiting factor of global warming.  Our latest computer models can't account for clouds yet...

Answer 7

The net radiative forcing from an atmosphere containing a higher specific humidity is positive, not negative.  This includes the positive radiative forcing due to water vapor and the negative forcing due to the increased albedo from clouds.

edit:  There are three things that clouds do.  

1.  Reflect incoming shortwave radiation.

2.  Absorb incoming shortwave radiation

3.  Absorb upwelling longwave radiation

Process 1. leads to cooling, processes 2. and 3. lead to warming.  On balance, when the cooling and the warming  is taken into account, the clouds provide a much smaller cooling than would be found by considering the reflection alone.  And you cannot neglect the two warming effects in your radiative budget.  Furthermore, you can't get more clouds without having more water vapor in the air.  More water vapor leads to a higher greenhouse forcing from water vapor, and that is a third warming process.  When the warming from water vapor and the warming from 2 and 3 above are combined, they exceed the cooling from 1 above.  This means that on balance the net effect of adding more water vapor to the atmosphere is warming.  

This can't be made any simpler and remain essentially correct.  The technical details are in the Ramanathan paper cited below.

Answer 8

Yes your correct. Warm air does hold more moisture than cool air that's why we're so humid in the Summer up here in Minnesota. (And other states that have a lot of water surrounding them. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada aren't humid states, even though their warm weather states, due to them being mostly desert with little water sources in them.)