Re: [asa] Serious scientists getting closer to the cosmic connection to climate

> > This argument has always been beyond stupid because CO2 accounts for less
> than 3% of greenhouse gases. 80% of such gases is water vapor, for which man
> is not responsible.
> Not true. Water vapor is a positive feedback mechanism for CO2 and increases
> the climate sensitivity to CO2.

Also, human production of carbon dioxide is almost always accompanied
by production of water vapor. I'd guess that the relative volume of
water vapor directly caused by the burning of fossil fuels is less
than the volume produced by the increased evaporation that results
from human-caused CO2, etc. raising the average temperature, but
that's a guess.

However, to me the most fundamental error of this and all other
attempts to claim that natural causes account for global warming is
the assumption that this means we don't need to worry about human
activities. In fact, if natural factors are already pushing things
towards warming, we need to take even more drastic steps to control
human-caused factors that also push in that direction.

The presentation is also problematic. Contrary to both the tenor of
many scientific papers and the wishes of people who like what they
think a paper implies, the latest paper doesn't eliminate all the
other studies that have been done. It's also important to bear in
mind that claiming that global warming is caused by decreased cosmic
rays and claiming that global warming isn't happening are not mutually
compatible positions. All arguments that seem to support your view
are not therefore automatically good arguments. This is an appeal for
caution and carefully reasoned arguments. I don't specifically recall
whether "no global warming" has been claimed by anyone here but rather
selected it as an example of the need to have a coherent claim rather
than merely taking potshots at the standard view.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
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