# Are we going to be saved by natural hydrogen?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-going-to-be-saved-by-natural-hydrogen/997065>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 3, 2024, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-going-to-be-saved-by-natural-hydrogen/997065 "2024-02-03T15:01:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 23

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**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2024, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-going-to-be-saved-by-natural-hydrogen/997065/23 "2024-02-04T13:03:56Z")

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> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> No. Water vapor is almost exclusively a feedback directly correlated with temperature change and not a climate forcing, except for very minor amounts in the stratosphere mostly resulting from oxidation of CH4. The difference between a forcing and a feedback is very fundamental. This is why water vapor is **never** included in the categorization of radiative climate forcings. The idea that increased water vapor emissions at the surface would have a “substantial” effect on global warming is ridiculous. What it would mainly do is produce more rain as the atmosphere sheds the excess.

I understand the difference between “forcing” and “feedback”, thank you, and it is specifically the emissions that continuous emission of vapor in the upper troposphere and stratosphere that increases heat retention despite the fact that excess water vapor does precipitate out on a timescale of days, a point that would have been clear if you’d quoted my entire sentence instead of your careful editing to remove that qualification:

> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
>
> If we were able to utilize hydrogen as a combustion fuel at a scale comparable to current use of petrofuels **(especially at high altitude)** it would have a substantial continuous impact on global heating because water vapor is **a potent if not persistent greenhouse gas**.

Next time, please do me the basic courtesy of quoting my entire sentence for context instead of ‘creatively’ truncating to so that you can dispute the ‘point’ that you want it to seem I made instead of what I actually wrote.

Stranger

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