[Ben Ficklin]

Although this article is 100% accurate on Hansen's assessment in regard to CO2, it is imcomplete in that it doesn't mention his opinion on other emitted gases.

He does call for the regulation and reduction of emissions of: methane which is a greenhouse gas and for those smog producers such as NOx and VOC. Whereas there is no political or scientific consensus on CO2/warming, there is no disagreement on smog/ozone as a problem.

Hansen has written that any global political/economic consequences faced by Bush/US for rejecting CO2 regulation would be offset by regulating smog producing compounds. Hansen refers to this as "taking the high ground away from Europe".

It is important to note actions being taken by individual states on CO2. There are several and where else but the west coast and the northeast. Most recently California has indicated that they will attempt to regulate tailpipe CO2 while Texas, on the other hand, has rejected even doing a CO2 inventory and will concentrate on NOx, VOC, CFC, etc.

[Texas_Longhorn]

methane is in fact one of the more powerfull greenhouse gases...What the commie socialists don't tell you is that the half-life of methane is 7 years. In other words, every 7 years 1/2 of methane in the atmosphere has completly broken down.

[Texas_Longhorn]

Another thing the commie socialists don't tell about is this greenhouse experiment: Have an air-tight greenhouse. raise the CO2 levels to around 90%...what happens? The plants grow up to 12 times the amount of mass...they also grow MUCH taller which implies more conversion of CO2 to oxygen. Yes, there is a reason our planet has survived many large global events (volcanoes, astroids) or perhaps....just perhaps....it was designed this way.../sarcasm