The increased warmth allows the atmosphere to hold
more water vapour so that total
atmospheric density increases and the
atmospheric greenhouse effect strengthens.
The resulting warming due to the
water vapour is in fact larger than the initial warming due to the CO2 that forced it to happen, and this is the point of the Lacis paper - yes,
water vapour is a
more important greenhouse gas than CO2, but
water vapour doesn't change systematically with time UNLESS CO2 is changing and initiating a warming that sets into motion the surface and
atmospheric processes that allow
water vapour to systematically increase.