OK, I'm back but I don't know for how long.

I got to thinking about global warming. IF you're the type who believes in global warming and IF you're convinced that it's the human race who is the main culprit, has it ever occurred to you that perhaps there is something we have done which we can reverse to help solve the problem.

For example do you remember all those years ago (if you're not that old, read a history book), when most of our major cities were filthy, smoky, can hardly breathe, cesspools of polution. Do you remember what was done to our industry, to our automobiles to eliminate that problem?

We installed catalytic converters everywhere. Do you know how the catalytic converter works? What it "converts"? And what it "converts" it into? Here the details on the chemical activities:

1. Reduction of nitrogen oxides to nitrogen and oxygen: 2NO_x → xO₂ + N₂
2. Oxidation of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide: 2CO + O₂ → 2CO₂
3. Oxidation of unburnt hydrocarbons (HC) to carbon dioxide and water: C_xH_2x+2 + 2xO₂ → xCO₂ + 2xH₂O

Hey, #1 isn't bad, we get some oxygen and some nitrogen. But #2 and #3 BOTH produce carbon dioxide (CO2).

Now I understand they're worried about your "carbon footprint". So, is it carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that we all heard about, that's the problem or is it carbon? One of the reasons our cities used to be so dirty was all that carbon falling out of the atmosphere. It doesn't seem to be that bad nowadays.

I suppose what they want to do is get that carbon to combine with oxygen so it comes out a clear, pure, clean carbon dioxide. What do you think? Maybe we should just pull all the catalytic converters off of everything and see what happens. Shouldn't be any worse that it was 40 years ago, right?