Another interesting letter to the Contra Costa Times, from one Bob Armstrong, who attempts to cast doubt on global warming (or at least human influence on it). Again, a couple of interesting and perhaps not totally relevant comments attempting to throw dust in the eyes of those who worry about such things. Armstrong wonders about the influence of buffalo herds prior to the 1880s on global warming — why wasn't there any global warming prior to that time? He also wonders, why, absent human influence, "... the ice caps on Mars are melting too."
These are, of course, questions far too easy to answer. The buffalo, who numbered some tens of millions or perhaps a hundred million or thereabouts, produced relatively little organically-generated methane and carbon dioxide compared to the some six and a half billion human beings who occupy the planet today. We may also consider the production of these gases from landfills (of which the buffalo had none) and fossil-fuel burning for industrial purposes (in which the buffalo did not engage). In other words, buffalo production of greenhouse gases was a drop in the bucket compared to what humans are producing today?
As to the Martian icecaps ... they melt (or, more properly, sublimate) because that's what they've always done, season by season, year by year. After all, the icecaps on Mars, last time I looked, seemed to be only inches thick, and consisted largely of carbon dioxide which condenses into solid form in the depths of the Martian winter and sublimates back into the Martian atmosphere at the height of the Martian summer (both of which seasons last almost twice as long as they do on Earth). There's no comparison with Earth's water ice caps, which sometimes reach depths of thousands of feet and were — at least until recently! — considered permanent features of the planet, at both poles.
Buffalo and Mars are red herrings, to be thrown into the discussion by people who have no better arguments.