Ken,
Carbon is considered a pollutant because it is being released into the environment in a volume and rate that is beyond the natural carbon cycle. This is largely because we are burning oil for energy - oil that is comprised of the decayed plant material of the past. These plants of the past sequestered carbon much like their cousins do today, but when they died and were buried by geologic events, they took that carbon with them. There it stays until we dig it up for our use and re-release it into the atmosphere. In other words, it would never have seen the light of day if hadn't been for us.
??? Does that mean I am going to stop driving my van around? Heck no! Driving around an older car is recycling - new cars, despite their fuel efficiency, are a result of a manufacturing process that uses many more times the amount of energy than simply continuing to use an older car. Someday we will be able to give up gas for bigger and better (and hopefully cheaper) sources of energy, but until then I will continue to buy used! Besides, all the new cars look the same these days anyways.

PS - the real scam is Ethanol!

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