[AT] Good global warming tractor day

[carl gogol]

When I was in grade school I remember the science texts talked about the 
city of NY hauling their garbage out to sea and just dumping it.  A picture 
of ag arbage filled barge was included for emphasis.  I was rather offended 
by that because even those of us that lived in rural backwoods upstate NY 
knew that the right thing to do was to take it to the dump and burn it so 
there wouldn't be any pollution!  I guess another 50 years of prospective is 
a good thing.  We don't know everything today, but we know that since the 
industrial age began carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have increased dramatically 
after being somewhat constant for centuries before steam engines and 
internal combustion engines were common place.  We know this because of our 
ability to drill deep and take old ice samples from the rapidly melting 
polar regions and measure the relative concentration of disolved CO2 over 
these very long periods of time.  We also know that it takes huge amounts of 
energy to change ice into liquid water (heat of fusion) - how fast will 
global temperature change after there are no more polar ice caps to melt 
compared to now?  The earth is a very complex system and has become 
uninhabited before and probably will again, someday.  We hope that there 
will be no super volcanoes to spew out even huger quantites of CO2 to add to 
the atmosphere.  We know that CO2 does tend to hold the earth's heat in, as 
does methane and some other natural and manmade chemicals.  More of them 
will unquestionably have an increasing effect on temperature and further 
disturb the current energy balance.  I don't know if we will ever know when 
the point of no return is reached in all of this. Some models say that it is 
already too late - I don't know. I suspect that most of us will be gone 
before the final chapter and answer page is written in this story.  I just 
don't understand the attitude that humans and their machines couldn't make a 
difference.  After all, the rivers and the seas are so large (in effect 
infinite) that we could never effect them with our chemicals and trash!  Yet 
we did pollute them in only part of my lifetime.  I do not want to give up 
my carbon eating tractors or for that matter my personel transportation 
device or heat in the living room.   is just another wonderful ability of 
humans to deny what is clearly in front of them.
Sorry, just wanted to share and don't particulary want to start a flame war. 
I just feel that there is overwhelming evidence that humans have had an 
impact above and beyond the natural cycle of things and that their combined 
efforts will make a difference either positive or negative.  I now need to 
watch the Daily Show to get some insight on the news of the week.
Carl Gogol - Manlius, NY
Tasty grazing in the Oran valley of Central NY
AC D14, 914H
JD 5320 MFWD
Kubota F-2400, B7300HST
Simplicity 7116H