This is a response to the Nov. 6 letter, “Court ruling on permit nonsensical.” Apparently, the court wants the MPCA to look into the effects of 1,500 cows injecting methane — a greenhouse gas — into the atmosphere.
Water vapor (a greenhouse gas) traps about 1,375 times more heat than man’s CO2; and about 8,620 times more heat than man-made methane (this includes livestock production). That’s based on a conservative 1% global atmospheric WV content. However, it can at times go up to 4% in places.
The thing about WV is it’s variability from day to day and place to place over the earth, and that’s a big problem for climatologists when trying to get climate models to work. Consider that even a somewhat small up or down change in the massive quantity of WV may release or absorb far more heat — and therefore have more effect on temperature — than would a doubling of our current tiny CO2 level.
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Oceans have a huge effect on WV level depending on the amount of cloud cover blocking the sun’s energy, and, what the 40,000-mile “tank heater” (under-sea volcanic mountain chain) happens to be belching out at any given time.
So, bring on the CO2. Green plants love it and grow bigger as the concentration goes up, thereby creating a “greener planet.”
As for man-made methane; it’s contribution to the heat budget seems to be on an insignificant microscopic level. Let the cows do their thing.
Like evolution, heliocentricity and billions-of-years-old earth, the “man-made global warming” position appears to be indefensible.
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