On: What's Really Warming the World?

[hackuser]

A lot of this is answered in the IPCC reports, which have readable, short summaries:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9772353

[fexl → hackuser]

I searched on the words "vapor" and "vapour" and found nothing. I also search on the word "water" and found nothing relevant to my question.

[hackuser → fexl]

Perhaps the searches are [EDIT: not] looking in the PDFs? I just opened the Summary for Policymakers for the Physical Science Basis report, and found a few discussions of water vapor in the atmosphere.

I'd try looking at "Physical Science Basis" and "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability" reports; try the Summaries for Policymakers first, and the full reports if those don't have what you need (though go straight to the full reports if you have time -- they can be fascinating!).

I hope that helps.

[fexl → hackuser]

I opened the "Summary for Policymakers" listed right on their home page, and it popped up a PDF titled "AR5_SYR_FINAL_SPM-1.pdf". That's where I searched on the word "vapor" and found only one occurrence -- inside the word "evaporation".

I guess the "for the Physical Science Basis" report is something different that I haven't found yet.

[hackuser → fexl]

Holy cow do they make it hard. I had JavaScript off, which made their page much more usable. Either do that or ...

With JavaScript on, apparantly the UX concept is 'Easter eggs': There are 4 images arranged horizontally at the top. If you click image, one the section beneath it changes. The second image is "Physical Science Basis".

All that work making the reports accessible, hamstrung by web design.

[lukeschlather → fexl]

Read the entire executive summary. Micro-questions aren't meaningful if you don't have at least that level of understanding.