Part 2 - A question for people who believe that humans are causing climate change............?

Question

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/01/030117081715.htm

"Despite the fundamental role of clouds in climate and weather, there is much we do not know about them," said CloudSat Principal Investigator Dr. Graeme Stephens of Colorado State University's Department of Atmospheric Science, Fort Collins, Colo. "The lack of understanding of cloud feedback is widely acknowledged in the scientific community to be a major obstacle confronting credible prediction of climate change.

Answer 1

Clouds play a part in weather, not climate. Water vapor doesnt last long enough in the atmosphere and it cant build up in the atmosphere like other greenhouse grasses.

If there is a lot of water vapor, we get rain. Clouds/water vapor currently dont have anything to do with the current warming trend and I can believe anyone would think that somehow the climatologists "overlooked" this.

Answer 2

well thanks for that it made a lot more sense than your other question

Answer 3

whats the question?

Answer 4

I think the key point is; carbon dioxide and methane have a major effect on the temperature of the earth's atmosphere. The carbon cycle is an extremely delicate system that gives us the climate we currently have. Even if you 100% do not believe in global warming as caused by humans, doing a few choice calculations on the total carbon and methane emmisions by man , you cannot fail to see that it will have some impact. Will this be catastrophic, or permanent or beneficial? Who knows Surely we should at least move the debate on to this level at the very least, as oppose to constantly denying very very basic scientific principles ( ie greenhouse gasses are a scientific fact, not theory, climate change is happening, fact ( natural or man made its still a fact) and humans produce greenhouse gases,fact) Lets talk about that instead Eh?

Answer 5

You can read whatever you like the proof is in the facts. Just one fact for you....Antartica is melting.

Answer 6

This soundbite you quote does not in any way attempt to refute the understanding of man-made climate change, but implies CloudSat will help understand  the role of clouds play in the earth's energy budget, in the context of a changing climate. By doing so it aims to help further our understanding  of the climate puzzle.

This "question" is a fine example of somebody hearing what they want to.

Answer 7

And the next paragraph reads: “CloudSat aims to provide observations necessary to greatly advance understanding of climate issues.”  2003. (Five years ago.)

The point is about how great the amount of FEEDBACK clouds will contribute as the atmosphere warms due to the addition of GHGs outside the normal range of the carbon cycle. (Humans are now part of the climate cycle, for 99.9% of earth’s history they haven’t been. Humans now burn each year fossil fuels that took one million years to be formed.)

The overall amount of water vapour in the atmosphere is dependent on atmospheric temperature. Since water vapour is a greenhouse gas, it should increase warming as the atmosphere warms, as a warmer atmosphere can support more WV. It [WV] is therefore not a cause of warming, but a contributing feedback

The principles of the Hydrological cycle are understood pretty well:

http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides...

You can click through the pages > lower right hand

http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Ge-Hy/G...

Water vapour has a short atmospheric lifetime, around 10 -12 days between evaporation and it condensing and falling as precipitation. The amount of water vapour (WV) the atmosphere can hold is determined by the atmosphere’s temperature, this is known as absolute humidity. (Some of the driest places on earth are high deserts in the middle of Antarctica because of this.)

Heat is energy. If you increase the temperature, you are increasing the average energy of the particles present. That means that more of them are likely to have enough energy to escape (evaporate) from the surface of the liquid.

The First Law of Thermodynamics states that you cannot create or destroy energy.  Energy can change from one form to another, like electricity converting into heat, or heat converting into light, or water converting into vapour. An increase in temperature = increase in available energy.

The stronger the forces that are keeping the molecules together in a liquid or solid state, the more energy that must be input to evaporate them. (It takes about 600 calories of heat energy to change 1 gram of liquid water into a gas form.) Warmer air can also hold more water vapour than colder air because colder air is denser. Heat causes molecules to agitate faster; these cause a parcel of air molecules to expand and so it can hold more vapour.

http://www.atmosphere.mpg.de/enid/254.ht...

http://www.coleparmer.com/techinfo/print...

Therefore water vapour is a feedback, not a cause (forcing) of warming. The absolute (not relative) humidity of the atmos. varies by place, time & altitude, but it’s a stable balance. Add more WV, it won’t stay there, it quickly falls as rain/snow. No effect on temp. But add Co2, CH4 etc and these warm the atmosphere. The air’s capacity to hold vapour (absolute humidity) is limited but increases as the air warms, roughly doubling for each temperature increase of 10°C. CO2 = Forcing. WV + temp = Feedback.

There’s another discussion of the role of water vapour in global warming here. water vapour’s main role is to provide strong positive feedback that increases the effect of global warming.

http://www.natexaminer.com/warming/gas.h...

As for the claimed connection between cosmic rays and cloud formation even the Danes say they have only detected a 3% difference between solar maximum and minimum periods. The warming and cooling effects of the clouds could even cancel each other out. Cosmic Rays also create CO2 in the upper atmosphere; they keep quiet about that I notice.

I agree clouds are complex and need to be understood more. That’s why projects such as CloudSat are important.

Answer 8

still dont see your point, but maybe im missing it.

Answer 9

now we know that u have some knowledge..is that wot u set 2 achieve,,,

clap-clap

Answer 10

clouds play a major part in weather. Global warming is a big con only belived by socalists and retards.

Answer 11

Really hard to tell the answer why... What really happens to the earth millions of years ago? the disappearance of the dinosaur? the Ice Age? is there any global warming then? or the opposite? What is the reason why fossil oil exist beneath the earth? Are this oil pockets beneath the earth acts as a cooling aid of the planet itself? How about all the minerals  that we took from earth, and used for buildings, ie metal, ore, brass,aluminum, coal,gold silver, etc. How much toxic gases releases to air at anytime a volcano erupts? The Ring of Fire even though erupts underneath the ocean, how much damage it brings to the echo system? Lots and lots of unanswered questions that contributes the global warming...I think that humans are also contributes some climate change...

Answer 12

Yes that's true about predicting the climate