William

I would like to understand how we have quantified the 'forcing' of the various contributors to climate change in the mathematical models.

For example, my understanding is that CO2 absorbs re-emitted radiation from the earth in the infra-red range. The CO2 molecule then passes this energy onto other molecules in the atmosphere by convection and direct contact. How do we work out what is the amount of 'forcing' thus contributed?

The higher temperatures in the atmosphere raise the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere and thus introduce an increased amount of this greenhouse gas molecule to the warming equation. How do we quantify the warming effect of the water molecule - its 'forcing' coefficient?

Is the answer going to be an interpolated number - "this is the number we have to put into the model to get the right answer" - or do we have some bottom up science to justify the 'forcing' coefficients?

Thanks

It is generally accepted that CO2 is a driver of climate change. What I want to understand though is the mechanism by which CO2 contributes to global warming, given that it is present in the atmosphere in such small quantities (<0.04%). By comparison, water vapour is present in three orders of magnitude higher quantities - in the order of 60% or so and it also absorbs electromagnetic radiation but isn't attributed with as big a role as CO2 in climate change. At a molecular level, I am at a loss to understand why CO2 is so impactful relative to its volume. Can anyone cast any light (no pun intended!) on this for me? I am not looking for an explanation at the macro planetary level rather at the molecular level.

For some reason my old IBM Thinkpad 390X using Windows ME isn't properly recognising USB devices. If I plug in a USB memory stick it says it knows there is a memory device inserted, but it doesn't appear on My Computer as a device. What should I do? Thanks!

Is Yahoo Answers being used as a way to dodge doing any thinking in getting homework completed? Who wins and who loses in this?

Some of my tomatoes are splitting radially out from the stem at the top of the tomato in a star pattern. The splits are then going black with mould.

Can anyone tell me what is causing this? It is summer here in Australia and my toms are growing outdoors, well irrigated at the roots and in full sun most of the day. There isn't much water getting onto the tomatoes except from the occasional rainfall.

I am told an aspirin helps the flowers to last longer. Is this really true or an old fairy tale? Does any one know how this might work? What does the aspirin do that achieves this effect?

Thanks!

The little sprout buds just seem to have stopped getting bigger and are unfurled rather than tight balls.

My Wong Bok cabbages are throwing up flowering heads after a few weeks growth from seed, instead of making the normal tight ball of cabbage leaves. Why are they doing this? What should I be doing?