LYRICS
Going on days and days
Living in a haze
Down with a bog
Living in a fog
Simply some sun sheen
Or a dripping of moonbeam
Would save me
Surely some bright light
A cool breeze through trees
Water vapor savior
It’s not just the heat
To make it complete
The humidity is killing me
Simply some sun sheen
Or a dripping of moonbeam
Would save me
Surely some bright light
A cool breeze through trees
Water vapor savior
Tired of jumping through hoops
When the air’s thick as soup
Please let it rain
I won’t complain
Simply some sun sheen
Or a dripping of moonbeam
Would save me
Surely some bright light
A cool breeze through trees
Water vapor savior
Chords: Am Em Bm Em / C Am E / E C E C E Am; Part II 121 Beats Per Minute
Instrumentation: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bass, Keyboards (Korg PS60, Casio WK-3500, Yamaha PSR-740, MiniNova, MicroKorg)
For every degree Celsius in warming, the water-holding capacity of the atmosphere increases by about 7%. Record-high sea temperatures ensure there is more moisture (in the form of water vapor) in the atmosphere, by an estimated 5-15% compared to before the 1970s, when global temperature rise began in earnest.
Water vapor is a powerful greenhouse gas. Since the 1970s, its rise likely increased global heating by an amount comparable to that from rising carbon dioxide. We are now seeing the consequences. In the current climate, for average all-sky conditions, water vapour is estimated to account for 50% of the total greenhouse effect, carbon dioxide 19%, ozone 4% and other gases 3%. Clouds make up about a quarter of the greenhouse effect.
The main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone – don’t condense and precipitate. Water vapor does, which means its lifetime in the atmosphere is much shorter, by orders of magnitude, compared to other greenhouse gases. On average, water vapor only lasts nine days,
Sidd said, “The biggest feedback loop is water vapor. Humans put CO2 in the air. CO2 is a greenhouse gas, so the earth gets warmer. Warmer air can hold more water vapor soaking up more water vapor from the oceans. Water vapor is a greenhouse gas, so it gets even warmer… rinse (sorry!) and repeat. Another interesting thing is that the precipitation (rain, snow, sleet) intensity is increasing.”
The most common measure of water vapor in the atmosphere is relative humidity. Deadly humid heat is affecting billions of people today. “It’s very disturbing,” study co-author Matthew Huber of Purdue University. “It’s going to send a lot of people to emergency medical care.”
The study Greatly enhanced risk to humans as a consequence of empirically determined lower moist heat stress tolerance was conducted by Purdue and George Mason University and published August 15, 2023. These results indicate that a significant portion of the world’s population will experience — for the first time in human history — prolonged exposures to uncompensable extreme moist heat. Humans will struggle to adapt to these conditions in a warmer world as they will present widespread challenges across many aspects of food-energy-water security, human health, and economic development including in the world’s most populous and most vulnerable regions. At 3C (5.4F) of yearly average warming, more than 1.5 billion people will suffer. Both 2022 and 2023 saw a record number of heat related deaths. More than 61,000 Europeans died from extreme heat in the summer of 2022.
— From Sea Level Rise: Then and Now / Mukherjee and Brouse (2023)