From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)
Newsgroups: tx.politics
Subject: Re: High Gas Tax
Date: 10 Nov 92 14:51:25 GMT
Organization: Texas Instruments Inc

In <21837@rpp386.lonestar.org> jfh@rpp386.lonestar.org (John F. Haugh II) writes:

>In article <PETONIC.92Nov5095651@daisy.hal.com>, petonic@hal.com (Michael A. Petonic) writes:
>> I must confess that I don't know the CO2 statistics like you do, but
>> what about the other pollutants?  You didn't offer any stats on
>> them.  Why is L.A.'s smog condition so bad?  Why does California
>> have special emissions?  Why do they not recommend idling your
>> car with the rear-hatchback open?  CO, methane and other gasses abound,
>> as well as solid pollutants.
> 
>It's pretty much the same.  There are volcanoes which regularly put
>out more sulfur that all man-made sources.  Parts of Colorado are
>naturally more radioactive than many scientists consider to be "safe".
>CO and CH4 are both produced =naturally= in abundance.

>California, particularly the LA area, has always had smog and haze.
>There are records of the Spanish explorers encountering the area and
>there being haze.  The Smokey Mountains are the same way.  They've
>been the Smokey Mountains for longer than Al Gore's been alive.  They
>will be the Smokey Mountains long after he's dead.

If you think that the primary cause of smog in the L.A. basin ISN'T
the presencen of juman beings, then you ARE living in a dreamworld.

>> If CO2 were the only thing that cars spit out that was bad, we'd be
>> in good shape.  Unfortunately....

>Sure.  They also spit out H2O, O2 ...

Yes, and they also spit out CO, NO2, N2O4various complex hydrocarbons,
etc.  Funny how you manage not to mention any of those things, isn't
it? 

>CO2 is NOT bad.  CO2 is plant food.  Plants need CO2 like animals
>need O2.

Ok, John.  You need O2.  I'll tell you what.  Since O2 is so good for
you, how about volunteering to live for a month in a pure oxygen
atmosphere with the same TOTAL pressure as the atmosphere you have
now, with all those worthless components in it.  We'll talk to you in
a month (if you survive the experience).

>> As for Gore being wrong, I'm not sure.  I think it's more of an opinion
>> thing.  I'm not as conscientious as I could be, but I really don't consider
>> the earth to be something that we can push to it's limits and then
>> bounce back, once we found those limits.

>But we've not even reached the limits.  Producing 4% of the global CO2
>is NOT reaching the limit.

But it may be enough to tip the dynamic balance past the current
resting point.

>Look - you're children will NEVER know a blue sunset.  I remember when
>the adage was "Red sky at night, sailors delight.  Red sky at morning,
>sailors take warning."  Now it's "Red sky at night, period."  Man did
>not do this.  In 100 years of the internal combustion engine, man did
>not manage to do this.  Some volcano in the PI did it.  Termites are
>making more CO2 than you and I.  Cow farts make more CH4 than you and I.

Yes, and that red sky is caused by DUST.  Cars don't put out a lot of
dust.

-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.
Newsgroups: tx.politics