An even more inconvenient truth

Here’s a fact that the global warming fear mongers tend to leave out, water vapor is a greenhouse gas, and in fact it is an excellent greenhouse gas. If you don’t believe me go to Houston in the summer. Ok that isn’t the "actual" greenhouse effect it just feels like one.
To be a greenhouse gas a molecule must be able to absorb and emit IR, which means it must have a dipole moment, and that is water in spades (H-O-H with the hydrogen’s having a partial + while the oxygen has a partially -) . Even if H2O wasn’t a better greenhouse gas than CO2, it is present in atmosphere at concentrations hundreds of times higher than CO2.

Current estimates pin 36-70% of the greenhouse effect on water vapor. Why is that fact left out of most scarce campaigns? Because, no matter how green the technology if there is combustion water vapor is a product, and global warming gets worse. Also, how popular do you think it would be they were telling people that watering their lawn or planting a non-native tree, was destroying the environment? It is easier to tell people that by recycling bottles and cans and driving a hybrid vehicle they can make a difference.

Some day soon we might be talking about “fossil water” or something equally catchy. Since the more water we pump out of the ground or melt out of ice packs or create by burning fossil fuels, the worse the problem becomes because that water was locked up before and not a big part of the atmospheric model. As we alter the vapor partial pressure of the planet by adding more water then sublimation and evaporation could alone, this could alter the weather and accentuate the “greenhouse” effect.

So, if we really want to make a difference we will ditch the hydrogen economy (hydrogen gas destroys the ozone layer, so that is another strike against it) and go nuclear with solar, and wind generation for peaking. (Hydro and tidal power heat the water, which releases water vapor, but over all it is very benign, so I guess they are ok too.)
Yes, nuclear has a bad reputation, but it is combustion free, and assuming we switch to sub-critical reactors, reprocessing, and managed disposal (instead of bury it and forget it), it can be safer.

The thing we should worry about most and work the hardest to conserve is water, since water is precious to life and wasting it actually hurts twice.

Don’t be fooled by the questionable science! Being “carbon neutral” at the expensive of a heavy water footprint could make things worse. Don’t make CO2 the scapegoat for all the worlds’ woes. As a nation and a planet we need to figure out how to solve the real problems.