This article is so poorly written it has to say "he said" fifty times, (actually only nine but six times in two paragraphs is too much). This article tried to make this guy out to be a renowned scientist. When they quoted him I scratched my head and did a double take.
"He said Methane, CO2 and Nitrogen were the main gases that formed the thick layer in the air, and prevented ultraviolet rays from exiting the earth’s atmosphere. He said that in Pakistan, the temperature had dropped by 0.5 degree centigrade in the last 50 years."
First of all they actually said that the temperature had dropped by 0.5 degrees in the last 50 years. Not very well edited for such a reputable news source. I know that they think they are a reputable news source by the way they don't allow comments. Comments are quickly being recognized as the most important part of an internet article. I understand that some major sites must disable them because comments do not scale well, but then you should enable a forum. These guys are above it all, they think they are hot shit!
Second water wapor is the biggest and most prevelant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. So, I had to read this over and over to figure out why this really smart environmentalist would leave out water. Was it because he is talking about the desert? No, because he ends the sentence with earth's atmosphere (global scale). Let's, just for arguments sake, say that is why and go down that road for a little while.
Water Vapor is absolutely the most important gas in meteorology. For thousands of reasons. Let's pick one that has to do with the difference between a desert and a more humid region. Specific heat. Specific heat is the reason that in a desert you can see temperature fluxuations of 50 degrees Fahrenheight between day and night while in a humid area 5 degrees may be a lot. Look at this table.
Specific heat @25 C
Water 4.1813 J * gram-1 * K-1
Carbon Dioxide 0.839 J * gram-1 * K-1
Nitrogen 1.040 J * gram-1 * K-1
When you talk about the specific heat of water you usually talk about it in calories where the specific heat of water is 1.00 calories * gram-1 * K-1 Which means that it takes one calorie of energy to heat one gram of water one degree celcius.
The real point of all this is, it is really hard to change the temperature of water. Therefore, if you have a lot of humidity the temperature will go up slower during the day than it would if you were in a desert.
How does this relate to the article in question? I don't know. None of it makes any sense. Early blooming due to global warming? No water vapor in the equation? Specific heat of carbon dioxide vs water in a desert? We are all idiots.
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