Happy Carbon Belch Day, America!

Conservative group Grassfire.org wants people to waste as much energy as possible today by "hosting a barbecue, going for a drive, watching television, leaving a few lights on, or even smoking a few cigars."And judging by the responses to a story I wrote earlier this month about Grassfire.org's call for a national Carbon Belch Day on June 12, lots of folks will in fact be BBQing up steaks today (preferably from cows raised on pastures reclaimed from the Amazonian rainforest) while puffing stogies and letting their SUVs idle in the driveway.

The story received more than 500 responses, mostly from readers who are skeptical about global warming and say they're tired of being told how to live by Al Gore.

"The green movement is just a fad," said "Drake." Another, using the screen name "Yeti," gleefully wrote, "What fun it is, putting the Gore-bots in an uproar. How they huff and puff at not being able to stifle a cook-out, let alone a cow fart."

Reader "Gordon Gibson" contends, "The Global Warming myth has been promulgated by those with a vested interest in legislating economic disaster."

For its part, Grassfire.org says it just wants to "help Americans break free from the 'carbon footprint guilt' being imposed by Climate Alarmists."

The group says it doubts claims that man-made sources of carbon dioxide emissions -- from automobile exhausts to manufacturing plants -- are raising the Earth's temperature at a dangerous rate. Theories about global warming were highlighted by former Vice President Gore's 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth.

Grassfire.org president Steve Elliott, in a statement, said such theories are off the mark. "It's time for Americans to purge ourselves of the false guilt that Al Gore and the Climate Alarmists have placed on us," Elliott said.

Not all our readers agree. "It takes a lot of rationalizing to make polluting without a reason a positive development. Good luck winning people over with this argument," wrote "Matt."

Grassfire.org said it chose today as the day it wants Americans to be eco-unfriendly because it coincides with expected debate in Congress over a $1.2 billion carbon tax rebate program.

Well, however you're celebrating it -- whether by running your AC with the windows open and the stove on, or by fueling a bonfire with old tires and pictures of Gore, Bono, and Barbra Streisand -- happy Carbon Belch Day!