On 18/06/2019 12:30, JNugent wrote:
On 17/06/2019 08:28, TMS320 wrote:
On 17/06/2019 02:54, JNugent wrote:
On 15/06/2019 18:10, TMS320 wrote:
On 15/06/2019 17:24, Keema's Nan wrote:

Remember also that methane breaks down (oxidises for the pedantic)
into
various forms, the main ones being CO2 and Water Vapour which are both
efficient greenhouse gases. So, even though the methane may not
last more
than 10-14 years, the elements which it turns into will be there
much longer.

I am sitting back as a spectator but I though I would point out a
trivial mistake. CO2 and H2O are compounds, not elements. I'm hoping
this correction pre-empts deniers that would hope to use the error
as a time wasting exercise in place of debate.

Let me speak up for Sorric on this occasion.

You are right about Co2 and H2 being chemical compounds rather than
chemical elements, but we use the word "elements" in at least two
distinct senses. One of them is derived directly from the
technocrat's world of chemistry as you say, but another is the
ordinary everyday use iof English as she is spoken in which "element"
means nothing more definite than "constituent parts". It is this
second usage which, for instance, allows lawyers to speak of the
elements of an offence.

Technocrats and lawyers can argue amongst themselves (as they always
seem to). I shall continue to use the technologist's version.

Even "technologists" are not on duty the whole time and can reasonably
be expected to use constructions like "the essential elements of an
offence" now and then.

Or even to refer to the low-resistance component of a heating appliance
as an element. Perhaps even to refer to weather as "the elements".

I guess context has nothing to with it?

That's jogged my memory. There are at least three distinct senses of
the word "element" and this has been two of them.

Shrug.

It's four now. And counting.

Many words have more than one use.