Removing your catalytic converter is illegal. And if I did remove it, I wouldn't be allowed to get my tag renewed on my vehicle, because everyone here has to pass an emission test before they are cleared to get a tag.
Doll, you don't seem to have picked up on the humor in irony of my explanation.
Of course removing your catalytic converter is illegal! Without it, your car would be pumping out harmful CO instead of harmless CO2. CO is not good for lungs and hangs low in the air (smog), especially in valleyed areas like Mexico City or Los Angeles. But guess what? CO pollution doesn't harm the planet. It is a local environmental concern (i.e. smog in LA doesn't affect smog in Chicago).
CO2 is billed as a much greater environmental concern, however. If you're worried about huricanes, mass extinction, rising sea levels engulfing coast lines, and the end of human life as we know it, CO2 would seem to be a more serious industrial pollutant than CO. CO affects the lungs of life forms in a finite area; CO2 (supposedly) impacts the health of "the planet."
Yet, if that were true, why is 1/3 of humanity's output of CO2 a result of CO conversion from catalytic converters? That was the point I was trying to get across.
In sum: carbon dioxide is a natural gas, critical to the existence of life on planet earth.
A.) CO2 makes up 0.038% of the earth's atmosphere. That 0.038% stays constant because plant life converts CO2 into O2 (which is also a greenhouse gas by the way). 95% of CO2 emissions are from the oceans, decaying vegitation (its fall now, lots of CO2 is coming from those leaves on the ground), volcanic activity, and carbon based life forms breathing. The remaining 5% is human industry (chiefly power plants and catalytic converters on automobiles converting CO to CO2).
The greenhouse affect is one of numerous factors that affect temperature on planets. CO2 absorbs a few microns of UV bandwith along with O2 (AKA that stuff we breathe), O3, and Methane. 95% of UV bandwith is absorbed by atmospheric water vapor. The portions where CO2 absorbs UV radiation are mostly overlapped by water vapor (by the way, you can't absorb more than 100% of something).
In sum sum: CO2 affects temperature about as much as staring at your food helps you lose weight. Yes, focussing your eyeballs to stare at your food does expend calories. And yes, expending calories will help you lose weight.
This is all very true. Industrial pollution causes global warming; staring at your food helps you lose weight.
The Michael