How big of a greenhouse gas is Co2 compared to water vapor? What is the percentage of all greenhouse gasses in

Question

the atmosphere?

Message to Dana - I just felt like having fun for the past day, I was celebrating "global warming is a hoax day". You can stop leaving comments on my questions complaining why you didn't get best answer.

Question 2: Is there a graph showing water vapor, carbon monoxide, dioxide and all those greenhouse gasses with sunspots?

Answer 1

CO2 concentration is irrelevent, since it's a lagging indicator. You need to find the cause, not the effect. Hint: the oceans can only absorb so much CO2 before it outgasses into the atmosphere.

Answer 2

Water vapor is a much weaker greenhouse gas than CO2, but there's a lot more of it in the atmosphere.  However, its atmospheric concentration depends on the atmospheric temperature, so it cannot initiate warming (but it can amplify it).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warm...

Here's your requested graph:

http://solar-center.stanford.edu/sun-on-...

Answer 3

Hey, man, since you're the Know It All, why don't you tell us?

Kidding.  I sleuthed this up for you on Wikipedia:

The Earth's atmosphere... contains roughly (by molar content/volume) 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.038% carbon dioxide, trace amounts of other gases, and a variable amount (average around 1%) of water vapor.

ADDED:

IN RE Question 2:  The second link below is a chart of sun spots for the past 400 years.  I'll report back if there's a chart out there mapping both gasses and sunspots (or is it perhaps temps that you want?), but you might have to make your own.

ADD 2:

Got a chart of sunspots, CO2 and temps.  See my 3rd link below:

Answer 4

http://www.fightglobalwarming.com/page.c...

MYTH - Water vapor is the most important, abundant greenhouse gas. So if we’re going to control a greenhouse gas, why don’t we control it instead of carbon dioxide (CO2)?

FACT - Although water vapor traps more heat than CO2, because of the relationships among CO2, water vapor and climate, to fight global warming nations must focus on controlling CO2.

Atmospheric levels of CO2 are determined by how much coal, natural gas and oil we burn and how many trees we cut down, as well as by natural processes like plant growth. Atmospheric levels of water vapor, on the other hand, cannot be directly controlled by people; rather, they are determined by temperatures. The warmer the atmosphere, the more water vapor it can hold. As a result, water vapor is part of an amplifying effect. Greenhouse gases like CO2 warm the air, which in turn adds to the stock of water vapor, which in turn traps more heat and accelerates warming. Scientists know this because of satellite measurements documenting a rise in water vapor concentrations as the globe has warmed.

The best way to lower temperature and thus reduce water vapor levels is to reduce CO2 emissions.

Answer 5

Carbon dioxide - CO2 - is THE greenhouse gas according to the doomsday crowd.  While carbon monoxide is miserable and dangerous, it isn't a so-called greenhouse gas if you go by the rules set out by the g/w alarmists.  

But it's a mistake to call CO2 a greenhouse gas really, because the truth is that carbon dioxide does not cause warming.  It's exactly the opposite...warmer temperatures cause an increase in CO2.    When temperatures cool, the carbon dioxide levels decline.  It is impossible for CO2 to affect temperature, because it's levels cannot change until after the temperature has.  

In the past 100 years there has been a slight warming of the atmosphere of about 1.2 degrees farenheit and the majority of that occurred during the first 50 years.  In the last 10 years there has been no additional atmospheric warming.  CO2 levels rose as a result of the temp. change...minimally...but enough to give sly politicians and lobbyists and trashy scientists ammunition for their cannon.  What they know...and hope you don't...is that the whole process is cyclical and natural.

Answer 6

As a greenhouse gas, CO2 is far less important than water vapor.

But, as a cause of warming CO2 wins, hands down.

The reason is that excess water vapor falls out as precipitation.  It can't initiate warming.  CO2 stays there for years, can initiate the warming we see, and does.