Ah, if only life allowed us to act only when we were certain...
But in the 1800's coal heating and horse manure made large cities nearly unlivable.
This is presented in support of, or in opposition to, my view that human activity can influence the climate and environment?
One small point Larry: The 'enviornment' is not the collective of living creatures, it is the solids liquids and gases on this planet.
If "influencing the enviornment" was cause for concern or change, then every single living thing on this planet is cause for concern.
Humans do not effect the enviornment, they exist in it like every other creature.
At one point in the earths history, that oil existed above ground first as its constituent elements, then as compounds(solid,liquid,gas), and then as part of the biomass. How is it possible that returning that oil to the enviornment is detrimental when in fact, it is the enviornment? It is that oil that was once biomass; a biomass that came from it?
I don't understand the logic of the global warming people. Do they want us to leave that oil in the ground? If we stopped using oil tommorrow, eventually all of the usefull life sustaining compounds would be consumed and be locked away as oil underground.
Matter can neither be created nor destroyed, it is finite.