Re: The Hydrogen Economy may come sooner than we expected

From: daestrom (daestrom_at_NO_SPAM_HEREtwcny.rr.com)
Date: 07/09/04 

Date: Fri, 09 Jul 2004 13:14:07 GMT

"LongmuirG" <longmuirg@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040708200018.26583.00001370@mb-m03.aol.com...
> Michael wrote:
> <snip>
> >On first glance, hydrogen seems to be the ideal fuel for automobiles and
> >other vehicles. It doesn't seem like one could get any cleaner burning,
> >since hydrogen burns (oxidizes) to form simply water vapor. No pollution!
> >What a seeming advancement over our current internal combustion engines
that
> >put thousands of tons of pollutants into the Earth's atmosphere, as well
as
> >giving off massive amounts of heat that contribute to global warming,
> <snip>
>
> It has been said before, but it obviously needs to be said again -- this
fable
> about hydrogen not contributing to anthropogenic global warming (if such a
> thing exists) is unscientific.
>
> We know that 97% of global warming on planet Earth is due to water
vapor --
> that is not contentious. We know that human activities can put additional
> water vapor into the atmosphere and increase relative humidity in local
areas,
> such as Las Vegas, Nevada -- again, not contentious. We know that burning
> hydrogen, or running it through certain types of fuel cells, puts
incremental
> water vapor into the atmosphere -- not contentious. The conclusion is
obvious.
>
> Burning hydrogen instead of fossil fuels principally to reduce the
production
> of "greenhouse gases" would be an act of rampant stupidity -- which is why
the
> usual suspects support it. And burning hydrogen will of course result in
> "giving off massive amounts of heat that contribute to global warming".

An overly simplistic analysis. Water vapor is in a dynamic equilibrium in
the troposphere with a much higher/faster 'turnover' than CO2 or methane.
i.e. when it gets more humid, it is more likely to rain, and the changes
happen much more quickly than with 'greenhouse' gasses. While it is true
that water vapor contributes to the planet wide temperature, it is not true
that burning hydrogen (or fossil fuels) will/does significantly change the
amount of water vapor in the atmosphere on a planetary scale.

Adding CO2 to the atmosphere (by burning fossil fuels), while at the same
time reducing the plant life on a planetary level (deforestation) *is*
changing the concentration of CO2. What affects that has on global warming
/ climate is still not perfectly clear.

daestrom

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