2005 Will Probably be Warmest on Record

Nilmat writes "A Washington Post Article notes that 2005 will probably have the highest mean global temperature of any year since the advent of systematic temperature records. At the moment, the mean temperature is about 0.75 degrees C above the global mean from 1950 to 1990, approximately .04 degrees higher than 1998, the year of the previous record. Only something dramatic, such as a major volcanic eruption, could cause enough cooling to miss setting a new record."

Comments

Re:Let me be the first to say

[Abies Bracteata]

And don't forget the worst greenhouse gas of all: WATER VAPOUR! Myth 4: CO2 is the most common greenhouse gas. Fact: Water vapour or clouds, which makes up on average about 3 % of the atmosphere by volume, and - according to several researchers - about 60% by effect, is the major greenhouse gas. 97% of greenhouse gases are water vapour by volume. Moreover, because of its molecular weight and absorptive capacity, water vapour is 3000 times more effective than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Those attributing climate change to CO2 rarely mention this important fact. Better start campaigning to remove all the water vapour emissions. Oh wait, water covers 71% of the earth's surface. No dice there...

Aarrrghhh! More ignorant right-wing drivel. You global-warming denier loons are as bad as creationists! The short atmospheric residence time of water vapor makes water vapor a *feedback* element, *not* a forcing element with regard to global warming.

Got that, loon? FEEDBACK. NOT forcing. Global warming is not initiated by water vapor; it is *magnified* by it. In the absence of an outside forcing factor (like anthropocentric CO2 emissions, water vapor will *not* cause global warming.

For those who have the attention-span necessary to handle some technical material, there's a good article that discusses the role of water vapor in global warming at http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=142