I can't imagine how BP smoke would contribute to green house gases. The smoke consists of carbon, water, some nitrogen, and some CO2, and some sulfur. Since air is comprised of 80% nitrogen, and about 19.5% Oxygen, and the rest is trace elements, I can't image that anything in the smoke is going to add much of anything. The Sulfur, and any nitric acid that can be formed, will dissolve, and be washed out of the air with the next rain. CO2 is also unstable, and will dissolve into separate elements with the next rain. The smoke is fairly cool, and is dispersed fairly low to the ground. Its the hot gases that are ejected up above 15,000 feet, by the tall stacks that are Not cleaned out of the atmosphere for months or years that cause the biggest grrenhouse gas problems. However, before anyone behins blowing up tall smokestacks, the amount of smoke, ash and gases spewed into the Atmosphere by the Exploding of Mt. St. Helens back in 1980 was more than the total "greens house gases" emitted by all the man created efforts since the dawn of the Industrial Age in the 1840s. The amount of smoke, gas, and ash spewed into the atmosphere by the explotion of the island of Krakatoa in the S. Pacific, back in the late 1700s was estimated to be about 10 times more than that created by the Mt. St. Helens explosion.
My point is that while we wring our hands about man's contribution to polluting the earth, and our air, we are a small pimple on the butt of a bull compared to what the Earth's natural forces do to pollute the atmosphere. To blame Mankind for killing the planet is just silly. To actually base public policy on that idea is NUTS! Man has done stupid things to the earth that has exacerbated natural disasters- of that there is no doubt. But, to blame man for the condition of the Ozone layer, or the entire atmosphere is just wrong. There are natural forces at work- Sun Spot cycles-, El Nino, and La Nina deep ocean water temperature changes, among others- that are much more at fault for the changes in temperatures, than anything man is doing. Man can process his waste, and filter the drinking water, and cut down on the particulate matter he sends into the air, and into the waters. He can make the immediate earth we live on and in more useful to mankind, and some animals. But, If we go into a time period of certain cosmic storms, we won't be able to save ourselves much less Earth. If we begin to have increased tectonic plate shifting, and increased volcanic eruptions around the world, the changes in the air quality around the globe will be substantially more than anything we control- certainly here in the USA. Before everyone slits their wrists over Air pollution, Take a look at those pictures of our Earth, taken from the Moon back in 1969, when air quality was a lot poor then than now. There is a reason Earth is referred to as the " Blue Planet", and its because the atmosphere is so CLEAR! Its a lot cleaner today, than then.
I recall, during the Gulf War in 1992-93, when hundreds of oil wells were set on fire, the same Doom and Gloom folks who now tell us that temperatures are rising, and the polar ice caps are melting, and everyone is going to drown as oceans rise, were then telling us that all that smoke circling the globe was going to lower the temperature, and put us into a new Ice Age. We were also told those fires would not be put out in 100 years! The fires were all out in less than 1 year. You don't find evidence any longer of those oil gases in the atmosphere, now. Somebody " forgot" that it " RAINS".
Remember when the Doom And Gloom people told us back in the early 1960s that Lake Erie was so polluted that it would not grow fish or other life for a 1,000 years! Lake Erie was declared "DEAD!" in newspaper headlines all over the country, and over the world. 5 years later, fisher man caught fish not five miles north of Cleveland, in the Lake. When the " Experts" at the US EPA went back to their " models" , they found out that they had failed to take into account that Lake Erie freezes over from shore to shore 3 out of every 5 years, and in the other 2, most of the lake is covered with ice, drastically depressing wave action, and accelerating The fall of particulate matter from the water to the floor of the Lake. In those few short 5 years, more than 3/4" of new soil was created on the bottom of Lake Erie, covering up the toxic soils below, and allowing new plant life to grow, and provide food for fish. The Lake LIVES!( ITS ALIVE! To quote the Dr. Frankenstein declaration!)
No one at EPA got fired over the millions of tax dollars spent in " crisis mode" because of their hysterical claims they could not back up. Cleveland has a new sewage plant, but it still doesn't have any steel plants there any more. So, while its nice to visit with each other about something as inconsequential as Black Powder smoke, on this forum, we need to make sure that the crazies out there- the leftists, and the Greenies- don't seize upon this subject to try to impose more restrictions on black powder. The Anti-freedom forces in this country's politics are always waiting around, hoping to seize on an emotional issue that their friends in the MSM can blow out of proportion for them, to gain more control over all of us.
