Quote:
Originally Posted by chipmunk
In fact, water vapor is a more abundant greenhouse gas. Research dating back to 1850s and earlier have shown this. Given the water content on the planet's surface, that's a huge contributor. Now how do you conclude what percentage of contribution is due to water vapor, and what percentage due to CO2 and CH4, CHx, etc.?
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Observations of the atmospheric routinely measure CO2 levels.
https://gml.noaa.gov/obop/mlo/progra...ction%20scale.
Additionally, more water vapor is a secondary effect of higher temperatures. Luckily, water vapor by itself hasn't been enough to support a runaway chain reaction on Earth. However, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere follows different principles, and these two IR absorbing compounds combined are the problem. We cannot directly affect the amount of water vapor the atmosphere holds, but we do have some control over the amount of CO2 that is released.