On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 06:18:52PM +0100, Guy Gorton wrote:

Not a comment on the original post but just a little contribution to
the overall thread on global warming/pollution/whatever.
I don't think a word has been said about the contribution of volcanoes
to all the nasties in the atmosphere - as I understand it, man's
pollution is but a fraction of what the world's volcanoes spew out.
Or have I been misinformed?

Let us assume for the moment that you have been correctly informed.

If anthropogenic pollution is just a small proportion, it could still be
sufficient to disturb a finely balanced equilibrium. A new equilibrium
will, of course, eventually be found, but that doesn't mean that it
would be a nice equilibrium. It could be one where many of our major
cities are uninhabitable; or where our most productive farmland becomes
unusable; or in which our best and most important crops, which have been
engineered for hundreds of years to suit particular conditions, fail.

I'm not saying that that is what undoubtedly will happen. Merely that
it's worth at least caring about the little things.

--
David Cantrell | Official London Perl Mongers Bad Influence

People from my sort of background needed grammar schools to
compete with children from privileged homes like ... Tony Benn
-- Margaret Thatcher