John Rumm wrote:

snip

One of the things that interests me is why so little attention is paid
to water vapour. IIUC this is by far the most significant "greenhouse
gas" - and concentrations of that dwarf CO2 (man made or otherwise).

(the cynic might say that perhaps its because if you include it, you
make the man made CO2 component look far less significant, and that does
not suit the agenda!)

Even the much maligned Wikipedia article acknowledges that water vapour
is the most important greenhouse gas. The actual likely limits it quotes
a

Water 36 - 70%
CO2 9 - 26%
Methane 4 - 9%
Ozone 3 - 7%

There are several reasons why the importance of water vapour seems lost
at least to the media. One of these might be that we have precious
little control over the level of water vapour in the atmosphere. Another
might be the difference in scale between the additional water vapour if
the atmosphere warms by 1 degree C and the 50% increase in atmospheric
CO2 from pre industrial times.

It is important to distinguish between the deniers for whom the whole
notion of global warming is complete ******** however compelling the
evidence and the sceptics who think the effects have been exaggerated
for political reasons. I am naturally a sceptic myself but I am being
driven into the arms of the warmers by the activities of the deniers and
the knowledge that the sceptic's case is tarnished by their general
failure to disassociate themselves from the deniers.

I repeat below what I said in the tree planting thread:

"Facts have a surprising habit of not changing without due cause. But
just for the record I will reiterate what I currently believe.

1) The world has been warming up, with only the odd blip, for at at
least the last 100 years and so far at least shows no sign of reversing
the trend.

2) CO2 has had a significant part to play in that warming and it really
is of no consequence how big a share of that is due to the activities of
humankind.

3) A warmer world is very bad news indeed for a sizeable proportion of
the world's population.

4) If the world continues to warm at some time in the not too distant
future the equilibrium will break down and we will swap the current
inter-glacial for an ice free hot world.

5) Nothing we do in this country will be enough to effect the outcome.
If countries with large populations fail to act to cut their carbon
output and, perhaps more crucially, stop breeding like rabbits, then the
rest might just as well not bother.

Now will all those "educated people in this group" who Dennis claims
disagree with me please stand up (metaphorically speaking) so I can see
who they are."

snip