SUMMARY:
Water vapor and clouds
almost totally dominate
the greenhouse gas impact
on Earth’s temperature.
Methane emissions
have a negligible impact.
There is no logical reason
for methane regulations.
DETAILS:
Our planet cools
by emitting infrared
radiation into space.
That process
is constant,
but is easiest for
people to notice
at night.
Some of the
upwelling
infrared energy
is absorbed and
quickly re-radiated
by greenhouse gasses,
back toward the earth,
in a process called
back radiation.
Greenhouse gas
molecules in the
atmosphere
keep the planet
warmer than
it would
otherwise be.
Greenhouse gases (GHGs)
are actually a small fraction
of the atmosphere, and H2O
is by far the most important
greenhouse gas.
The greenhouse effect
has been obscured
with lab experiments
that use “dry air”
as the gas.
Climate models
use the same
assumption.
But dry air does not
exist in nature
-- it must be created
in the laboratory with
special equipment.
Climate modelers
also start with dry air,
and then introduce H2O
as a “feedback” effect,
tripling the warming they
expect from CO2 alone.
There is no evidence
that "tripling" actually
happens in real life.
The resulting global average
temperature forecasts made
using the models, are for
global warming two to three
times the actual warming.
Methane inside laboratory
equipment, using artificially
dried air, is not the same
as methane located
in the atmosphere.
In the U.S., regulation
of methane emissions
is being debated.
But the GHG
temperature
impact
of methane
is negligible.
Water vapor and clouds
are primarily responsible
for the greenhouse gas
effect.
REASONS:
In the atmosphere,
the methane (CH4)
absorbs and reradiates
the same wavelengths
of infrared energy
as water vapor (H2O).
And there's little energy
in the "CH4 region"
of the infrared wavelength
spectrum (7.65 microns)
to begin with.
The infrared radiation
wavelengths emanating
from Earth are centered
around 15 microns,
and spread from about
9 microns to 30 microns
wavelengths.
Also, the CH4 concentration
is only 1.8 parts per million,
while H2O is about
15,000 parts per million.
H2O’s impact
overwhelms
everything else
for the entire
“greenhouse gas”
effect.
Chemistry lab experiments,
using artificially dried air,
do not duplicate Earth’s
actual atmosphere --
real air, which contains
lots of H20.
Methane Is
far lighter
than air.
So CH4 drifts
from Earth's surface
(where its origin
is termites, wetlands,
rice paddies, and
just a little comes
from human and
animal activities.)
up through the
troposphere
into the
stratosphere.
There, it is soon
oxidized to H2O
and CO2, and that
chemical reaction
dispenses of the CH4,
after it had only
a tiny impact on
Earth’s temperature.
