As well you should be, since no one of letters has proposed any such scenario. (Yes, I know you were being hyperbolic, but the fact remains that it is gross exaggeration.)

If we're fouling our own proverbial nest by creating an O2/CO2 imbalance (and I do suspect that we are, to say nothing for now of the unnatural toxins we brew up and toss around), then of what real relevance is the extent to which other factors are in play?

Do you know how science works? Every two-bit jerk in a lab coat is just itching for a chance to gain a cred point by shooting down someone else's errant conclusions. That keeps the community as a whole very diligent and honest. And the media may be somewhat sensationalistic in their determination of what is "newsworthy" but they do as a rule tend to report things more or less the way they hear them. That is, after all, their function.

This is why I quoted your post, because I'm agog at this conspiratorial accusation. In addition to what I've said above, let me riddle you this: how in the blue nutsack would such a massive conspiracy work? Are there subterranean meetings? Secret memos? And why? Why would anyone, let alone virtually everyone who was involved in Earth Sciences, endeavor to foist a global untruth upon the people? Because they're all Leftists and mesmerized by the hippie ethos to the total exclusion of fact, reason and due empirical process? Could you swallow that hypothesis on examination? Really?

Obviously I don't feel that way. Knowledge, wisdom, love; however little or much we may have of these things we can give away freely without losing any. To the contrary, we often find that we gain more of same in the process. That's the one true alchemy in this life, Cons, the only real magic that exists. Why allow anyone to remain in darkness, or worse, point people away from light? It doesn't cost us a thing except a moment of time to bring a person a new fact (or a new word, which is one of the reasons behind my sprinkling my speech with the occasional less common one) that might someday serve him or her (or us) well.

Every one of us is more doltish than not, when you get right down to it, but if we all piss together on the fires of ignorance and misinformation--and I might add 'unhappiness' to that list as well--we may just find in the end that we've left the world better than we found it. Dig?