[syriacus]

In China, the leading coal producing nation, underground fires are believed to consume up to 200m tonnes of coal per year, said Glenn Stracher of East Georgia College. That would release as much carbon dioxide per year as all the road vehicles in the US - equivalent to 2 to 3 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions from global fossil fuel burning.

It will be interesting to see how the world community pins the blame for this on their favorite "whipping boy," the U.S.

[ancient_geezer]

That would release as much carbon dioxide per year as all the road vehicles in the US - equivalent to 2 to 3 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions from global fossil fuel burning.

Which is not even near the total contribution of nature to greenhouse gas concentrations.

Mankind's impact is only 0.28% of Total Greenhouse effect

That includes the contribution of the coal mines in China.

" There is no dispute at all about the fact that even if punctiliously observed, (the Kyoto Protocol) would have an imperceptible effect on future temperatures -- one-twentieth of a degree by 2050. "

Dr. S. Fred Singer, atmospheric physicist
Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia,
and former director of the US Weather Satellite Service;
in a Sept. 10, 2001 Letter to Editor, Wall Street Journal

 

Change in climatic temperature is predominantly a consequence of Solar heating/cooling arising from variation of solar radiance, plus astronomical & geophysical events affecting surface & atmospheric albedo.

 

Ice Ages & Astronomical Causes
Brief Introduction to the History of Climate
by Richard A. Muller

Origin of the 100 kyr Glacial Cycle