[cogitator]

Just wondering cogitator, do you suppose that these large wildfires we are currently experiencing in the western U.S. have any impact on global warming?

Though they're impressive, they aren't widespread enough. However, the black soot aerosols they produce is likely to be of importance, but you need hundreds of thousands of cooking fires (as in India) or poorly-controlled industrial pollution (as in China) to have a substantial impact.

[Reeses]

Though wildfires are impressive, they aren't widespread enough.

The wildfire/green house gas connection must be a taboo subject, I'm having trouble finding hard facts about it. My best estimation from searching many websites is that one acre of forest wildfire generates very roughly the equivalent of 200 cars worth of CO2 driven for one year. If America has 1,000,000 acres of wildfires this year, that possibly exceeds the total CO2 output from all automobiles combined. That's a fairly significant source of CO2. Why is there no mention of this anywhere? I find this curious.

[alaskanfan]

but you need hundreds of thousands of cooking fires (as in India) or poorly-controlled industrial pollution (as in China) to have a substantial impact.

Perhaps then you could explain to the listeners why India and China were excluded from the Kyoto accord that the liberals have waved in front of our faces since Mr. Bush's election?