"Don Foreman" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:12:53 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


"Martin H. Eastburn" wrote in message
...
The common termite out produces man and man's machine.

Just think of the massive cut in South America and all of
the rotting wood being eaten up by termites that 'out-gas' CO2
as they eat cellulose and break it down.

Martin

But it's wood that absorbed that CO2 from the atmosphere within the last
few
decades. They don't "add" a bit of CO2.

If trees absorb (subtract) CO2 by photosynthesis, but the CO2
resulting from them later being broken down by combustion or digestion
doesn't add it back to atmosphere, then we'd have one hell of a CO2
deficit if we weren't making up the difference by burning fossil
fuels. G

But it *does* re-emit it back to the atmosphere. That's a closed loop, one
that closes over a period of decades. Over that time, there is no net
addition or subtraction from atmospheric CO@.

I don't have to explain to you the difference between that and burning
fossil fuels. And you're being downright silly. Like most old engineers,
you're deep into pedantry at the expense of understanding. It was fixing
arguments like yours that provided me a job for 30 years. d8-)

--
Ed Huntress