The fact that carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas is chemical and physics fact -- it insulates because it lets visible light go through, but blocks some of the infrared waves, which are longer wavelength.
NCDC: Greenhouse Gases
As you can see -- they absolutely DO count water vapor, and methane and nitrous oxide and others. Water vapor is dependent on carbon dioxide, as it turns out. I've posted this link at least twice:
Carbon dioxide controls Earth's temperature
Quote:
The study, conducted by Andrew Lacis and colleagues at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, examined the nature of Earth's greenhouse effect and clarified the role that greenhouse gases and clouds play in absorbing outgoing infrared radiation. Notably, the team identified non-condensing greenhouse gases -- such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and chlorofluorocarbons -- as providing the core support for the terrestrial greenhouse effect.
Without non-condensing greenhouse gases, water vapor and clouds would be unable to provide the feedback mechanisms that amplify the greenhouse effect. The study's results will be published Friday, Oct. 15 in Science
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OF COURSE they are counting the variability of the sun! Do you think they are utter nincompoops?! Sheesh -- they are counting the tilt of the Earth at any given time, the sunspots, the position of the continents (they drift around remember?), ice crystals, aerosols, chemical reactions, volcanic activity, and many many things that we laypersons don't know about.
And ALL life forms affect the environment. Where does the oxygen we breathe come from? From plants, and they use minerals from the earth, sunlight, and water. The water is the same water that has always been here. When you drink water, you are drinking dinosaur pee.
The Earth has five major minerals -- and all five of them are in our bodies. Our cells are closely related to the cells of virtually ALL other life forms. Our genes are interchangeable. The iron in our blood came from the stars. All the elements heavier than iron on the periodic table -- came from supernovas.
Some lifeforms are different: horseshoe crabs have copper based blood. The tube worms that live around the deep ocean volcanic vents have no eyes, no mouth, no gut, no anus -- they eat scorching hot chemicals (~450C !!!) that would kill us if we didn't already burn up. But they have a symbiotic existence with the bacteria inside them -- just like we do! We don't actually digest food ourselves -- the bacteria in our gut do it for us...
It's a wild and crazy and wonderful world out there -- aren't you curious to know more about it?