Only the Greenhouse Gas, Water Vapor, Measurably Warms the Earth

Abstract

Data is available for the 61 greenhouse gases (GHGs) in Table 2.14 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) to calculate their contribution to global warming in degrees Celsius. The procedure is described in the recently published study Reliable Physics Demand Revision of the IPCC Global Warming Potentials. In the current study, the contribution was calculated for each 61 GHG. The sum of the contributions of the 61 GHGs was 0.00833^oC out of 26^oC, which, for this example, is the difference in temperature between Pond Inlet and Amsterdam. This amount of temperature is too small to measure. Thus, with all other GHGs except water vapor eliminated as warming gases, water vapor is the only GHG that causes measurable warming of the Earth’s atmosphere. This is the exact result of the mathematical model of the Earth’s atmosphere developed in 1904 by Willis Carrier, i.e., the psychrometric chart, which is now a computer program, i.e., Humidair. Thus, the two methods used 120 years apart are robust and give the same result, confirming the unique role of water vapor in the temperature of Earth’s atmosphere and the virtually non-temperature role of the 61 GHGs.