Global Warming - Now I've Heard It All

The Washington Post, under the byline of Marc Kaufman, published an article stating that the decomposition of trees damaged by Katrina and Rita will "add significantly to the greenhouse gas buildup - ultimately putting as much carbon from dying vegetation into the air as the rest of the American forest takes out in a year of photosynthesis." The title of the reprint in the Atlanta Journal Constitution is Katrina, Rita: Carbon disasters.

Now I don't know if the math for carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is correct - let's assume it is. But I'm sorry, there are hurricanes and typhoons and tsunamis and tornados and volcanic eruptions and every other sort of natural process that affect the ecological ebb and flow of the planet. How much greenhouse gas is put into the atmosphere by a single volcanic eruption?

Yes, Katrina and Rita were very damaging. But hurricanes have been occurring since time immemorial. The last two hurricane seasons resulted in no serious damage to the U.S. coastline. I don't see any articles about how this lack of destruction is reducing greenhouse gas in the atmosphere! Another flaw in the report is that there is no mention of how many years it will take for the decomposition process, and therefore the evenutal release of carbon, to occur; 15 years, 20 years, 25 years? This constitutes a serious lack of journalistic context.

This is just the latest in hypersensitive obsession with every sort of greenhouse gas emission. Some others that have been in the news lately include:

• Recommendation that we increase the consumption of Kangaroos because they give off less methane gas through their normal digestive processes than cows.
• Concern that methane gas produced by cows are going to create an ecological disaster for the planet.
• Global warming activist Heather Mills suggested that instead of Cow's milk we drink dog, cat or rat milk instead, since animals raised for agricultural purposes are destroying the earth.

Are these really the problems we should be spending time and effort on: decaying trees and farting cows? I'm not sure what is involved with milking a rat, but I'm sure our technologically sophisticated society can figure it out!