A summary of Back radiation versus carbon dioxide as the cause of climate change H. Douglas Lightfoot August 24, 2017 Website: http://www.thelightfootinstitute.ca/
A new study by H. Douglas Lightfoot and Orval A. Mamer finds that the effect of carbon dioxide (CO2) on atmospheric temperature and climate is so small it is negligible. The study titled Back radiation versus carbon dioxide as the cause of climate change presents an original graph by the authors showing the concentration of water vapor plotted against back radiation. This is an important contribution to the discussion about CO2 because it allows an accurate comparison of the warming effect of water vapor with the known warming effect of CO2. On average, one quarter of the sun’s energy goes to evaporating water to produce water vapor, which is why water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas. A simple means to state the concentration of water vapor is by comparing the number of water molecules to the number of CO2 molecules in the air, i.e., the H2O/CO2 ratio. The number of water vapor molecules in the air is always larger than the number of molecules of CO2, except for the relatively small areas of the Arctic and Antarctic in winter. For example, at Inuvik above the Arctic Circle the ratio varies from 1 in winter when the sun is 3o below the horizon to 29 when the sun is 44o above it in summer. At Singapore on the Equator the ratio ranges from 78 to 87 as the sun angle ranges from 65o to 112o around the 90o vertical. The H2O/CO2 ratio depends primarily on the sun angle, but the proximity or absence of a nearby body of water can change the ratio. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis presents measurements showing water vapor content increased in the atmosphere over the period mid-1970s to 2011 and increased the Earth’s temperature by 0.5oC. This is strong evidence that water vapor concentration directly affects atmospheric temperature and climate change. Over the entire Earth, the atmosphere warms and expands from winter to summer and the CO2 concentration falls. This reduces the warming effect of CO2 while over the same period the warming effect of water vapour increases. The decrease in warming effect of CO2 is typically significantly less than 1% of the increase in the warming effect of water vapour. The warming effect of CO2 is very small compared to that of water vapour. The