But there would be no Global Warming either ! There are those who deny that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, that's why it's, unfortunately, necessary to illustrate its capacity to increase global temperature. Science has known this for a long time.
Cheers,
Bart
Of course CO2 is a greenhouse gas, Bart. Farmers have been increasing crop yields for many decades by injecting CO2 into their greenhouses to increase crop yields.
The earth's atmosphere can be viewed as a gigantic greenhouse. This 'wonderous greenhouse for spaceship Earth' is totally dependent on greenhouse gases to function. No greenhouse gas means no life. Without the 'so-called' greenhouse gases, the average temperature of the Earth's surface would fall significantly below freezing point. All the oceans would be covered in ice, except during the occasional volcanic eruption from the sea floor.
By far the most significant greenhouse gas is water vapor with its associated clouds containing water droplets and sometimes particles of ice. Whilst CO2 plays an absolutely essential role, because without CO2 there would be no life as we know it, about 75% of the total greenhouse effect is due to water vapor, clouds and water droplets.
Of course, the alarmists will claim, as increases in CO2 initially cause a slight warming, more evaporation of water will occur and this in turn will cause a positive feed-back resulting in yet more warming (because water vapor is a greenhouse gas), and this in turn will cause more evaporation and further warming until we reach a stage of CAGW (Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming).
What this alarmist scenario ignores, is the negative feed-back from increased water vapor, which is an undeniable fact, but is impossible to accurately quantify because of the enormous complexity and great variability of water vapor concentrations in the atmosphere and because of the imprecision of the predictions of changes in weather events that occur continuously on a daily basis.
The initial process of water evaporation produces a cooling effect. (Everyone knows that, don't they? It's why sweating helps to keep us cool.
)
The latent heat in the water vapor tends to be carried upwards from the Earth's surface into the atmosphere. When the water vapor later condenses to form clouds and water droplets, the heat is released and will most probably be carried away by winds and convection processes. Some of the heat will be radiated to outer space. Some will be radiated back to the Earth's surface. What proportion is impossible to calculate.
Also, as more clouds form, due to more evaporation, due to a slight warming from increased CO2 levels, more heat from the sun is reflected back to space from the upper surfaces of the clouds. This is known as the albedo effect. Imagine how cool it would become in the Sahara Desert if the sky became covered with clouds.
The bottom line is, CO2, Water Vapor and Warmth are essential ingredients for humanity to flourish. If we accept that and exploit the benefits of increased precipitation and increased CO2, by increasing food production, irrigating the deserts, planting new forests and so on, we shall continue to flourish.
On the other hand, if we kid ourselves that we can control the climate and make it benign for our purposes, by simply reducing our CO2 emissions, and if we continue to develop cities and suburbs as we have done in the past,
without regard to the history of extreme weather events in the area, then we will continue to suffer disaster after disaster.
We have to realize and admit to ourselves that we have got ourselves into a fix, not by releasing CO2 from fossil fuels, but by building inadequate infrastructures in cities and suburbs, in locations that have a history of extreme weather events unrelated to current CO2 levels.
