John Tyndall did a series of experiments to measure the absorptive capability of various gases such as water vapor, “carbonic acid” (now called carbon dioxide), and ozone. He noted that there are significant differences among these invisible gases to absorb and transmit radiant heat. He called them opaque. Oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen have no such properties. He called them transparent.
He concluded water vapor in the atmosphere is the strongest absorber of radiant heat, so is the most important gas controlling Earth's surface temperature. He said without water vapor, the Earth's surface would be ‘held fast in the iron grip of frost.’ He speculated on that variations in water vapor and carbon dioxide could be related to climate change.
“Tyndall related his radiation studies to minimum nighttime temperatures and the formation of dew, correctly noting that dew and frost are caused by a loss of heat through radiative processes. He considered London as a ‘heat island,’ warmer than its surrounding areas.”
Most climate scientists do not know enough about radiative transfer to realize that greenhouse gas warming is good news. And the alleged runaway warming on earth with increasing CO2 cannot happen. If it were possible it would have happened long ago when CO2 concentrations were far higher than today. Which is for most of Earth's 4.5 billion year history.
It is amazing how little climate science has progressed since the 1800s. In fact it has regressed. Ignoring water vapor variations in the atmosphere. Ignoring the greening of our planet from more CO2 in the air. Ignoring all natural causes of climate change, the only causes of climate change for 4.5 billion years. And making wild guess predictions of the future climate that consistently grossly over predict global warming. Even though a good prediction of "more of the same global warming", would require no computer games, and would be correct.
Meanwhile the always over predicting the warming climate models are being "adjusted" to over predict global warming even more for the next UN IPCC meeting in 2021. An accurate climate prediction is obviously not the goal -- scaring people about climate change is the UN's goal.