FURY OF MOTHER NATURE

Man's contribution to environmental "pollution" are paltry compared to those 
of nature. In her exceptional book TRASHING THE PLANET, former Atomic Energy 
Commision Chairman Dr. Dixie Lee Ray notes based on the available data, "all 
of the air polluting materials produced by man since the beginning of the 
industrial revolution do not begin to equal  the quantities of toxic 
materials, aerosols, and particulates spewed into the air from just three 
volcanoes: Krakatoa in Indonesia in 1883, Mount Katmai in Alaska in 1912, and 
Hekla in Iceland in 1947." To which could be added Mount St. Helens in 
Washington State in 1980 (which pumped out 910,000 metric tons of carbon 
dioxide alone). El Chicon in Mexico in 1982 (which sent more than 100 million 
tons of sulfur gases into the stratosphere), and Mount Pinatubo in the 
Philippines (which in 1991 hurled upwards of 30 million tons of material into 
the stratosphere).
LOS NINOS
Many environmentalists attributed the 1988 drought in the U.S. to global 
warming, but researchers with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in 
Boulder Colorado reported that the freakish weather was actually due to a 
natural phenomenon, the interaction of El Nino and El Nina, two massive 
currents in the tropical Pacific. El Nino is a huge strip of warm water that 
periodically appears off the coast of South America and disrupts the world's 
weather patterns. Now and then, it alternates with El Nina, a mass of cold 
water that comes from the ocean depths along the equator and drifts for 
thousands of miles.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE'S  Peter Gorner summarized the phenomenon: "Cold water along 
the equator clashed with warmer than normal water southeast of Hawaii. The 
result was both the U.S. drought and the devastating floods that swamped 
Bangladesh...... Nina's cooler water disrupted tropical weather patterns and 
distorted the path of the Jet Stream across North America. Then the Jet 
Stream shoved rain-producing weather systems away from the interior of the 
U.S. resulting in drought."
TERMITE TERROR

Sundry animals and insects also contribute their share to environmental 
"degradation. TIME for April 20,1992 noted that in "the Netherlands... manure 
from pigs poses a major ecological threat, defiling water supplies with 
excessive nitrites and acidifying local soils. Sheep have permanently scarred 
the landscape in Spain and Portugal, while in India ... bovines [cows] are 
ravenous wraiths whose constant quest  for food drives them to ravage 
standing forrests."
The February 1983 issue  of SCIENCE DIGEST reported that "an international 
team of researchers has discovered that termites generate more than twice the 
Carbon Dioxide  that fuel burning does." According to a study reported in 
SCIENCE for November 5, 1982, the "estimated gross amount of Carbon Dioxide 
produced [by termites] was more than twice the net global input from fossil 
fuel combustion." In addition, "Termites are a potentially important source 
of atmospheric methane: they could account for a large fraction of global 
emmisions." The wood-eating pests have a bacteria that enables them too 
digest carbon so efficiently that some 90 pe is converted too Carbon Dioxide, 
methane, and other gases they belch into the atmosphere.
Ants are another natural source of "pollution." In 1987, an atmospheric 
chemist with Bell Laboratories, and zoologists from Cornell University, 
reported that ants of the subfamily FORMICINAE make and store huge quantities 
of the formic acid that contributes most of the acidity of rain that falls in 
remote areas and is found in atmosphere gas and precepitation around the 
globe. It is abundant, for instance, in the fog and mists that hang over the 
rain forests of Central Africa. According to the July 6, 1987 INSIGHT 
magazine, the "ants release the acid when defending themselves and 
communicating with each other and upon dying. Since  30 percent of the world 
ant population belongs to this subfamily, there is significant concern about  
the acid the ants release," an amount estimated at "600,000 metric tons 
annually." which is equal to the combined formic acid contributions of 
automobiles, refuse combustion and vegetation."
Clearly, man has a long way to go to match nature as a "despoiler" of the 
environment.
By Robert W. Lee.

