From: John Beckett 

"Geo."  wrote in message
news::
> That's exactly his point, you get far more warming from water vapor (which
> requires a certain temperature range) than from CO2 and clouds even if they
> are methane based can make a huge difference as well.

FMD! About the only thing comprehensible in the book is the fact that the
author fully believes that a minute amount of CO2 has a very significant
effect on Earth's temperature!

The point about water is that there is a fixed amount of it. The percentage
in the atmosphere greatly varies, but on average it's constant (on a
thousand year timescale). It's the variables like CO2 and methane that
alter the balance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing infrared.

I think that a significant factor is that each greenhouse-effect molecule
covers a slightly different frequency range of infrared radiation.

> The whole carbon credits thing is just designed to make money
> for certain people who are pushing this stupid idea

I'm pretty sympathetic to anyone sceptical about the motives behind a
business proposition. But I think you're over-generalising. Whereas there
are undoubtedly some used-car salesmen who are now setting up companies to
trade carbon, it's absurd to imagine that the motivation for most
proponents is to set up a scam.

If it were agreed that humanity should cut back on CO2 emissions, then
carbon trading/credits/tax is a great way of doing it. Rather than have a
government spell out exactly how each company should operate, the
government would set rules that mean companies would have to take into
account how much pollution their activities generate.

John

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