Review how the greenhouse effect works (Section 2.5 in chapter 2) before participating in this discussion.
In chapter 2 you learned about the greenhouse effect, and chapter 4 deals with how water interacts with the atmosphere. In particular, the chapter discusses the ability of water molecules to store and release large quantities of energy, particularly heat.
Any gas that can store and release heat is considered a "greenhouse gas," a gas that can contribute to the warming or cooling of Earth's surface. The most well-known greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide, but there are others, including water vapor. In fact, water vapor is responsible for fifty percent of Earth's total greenhouse effect (https://climate.nasa.gov/ask-nasa-climate/3143/steamy-relationships-how-atmospheric-water-vapor-supercharges-earths-greenhouse-effect/). And water vapor is added to the atmosphere in huge quantities every single day, via both natural (e.g. evaporation, volcanism) and human (e.g. combustion of fossil fuels) causes. But, despite water's strong greenhouse contribution, carbon dioxide remains the most problematic contributor to global warming.
Here is this week's question: if water vapor is such a powerful greenhouse gas and exists in such large amounts in the atmosphere, why isn't it as problematic as CO2? In other words, why aren't scientists nearly as concerned with water vapor levels as they are with CO2 levels? (And no, it isn't a coverup by Big Water...