[r9etb]

Those figures can be compared to human emissions which are about 7.5 billion tons a year right now. So trees and oceans are absorbing on a net basis about 4.0 billion of the 7.5 billion tons of carbon we are releasing each year but the totals involved in the carbon cycle dwarf human figures.

What you're saying, essentially, is that humans are adding an additional 3.5 billion tons yearly that is not being absorbed -- which amounts to roughly 1-2% per year. That's quite a lot, actually.

The question, of course, is whether or not the rest of nature will adapt to take advantage of the new levels of CO₂ -- which I've got to think it will.

BTW, the biggest new enviro scare is that CO₂ is going to cause the oceans to become more acidic, and thereby dissolve the shells of sea creatures. (Really!) Perhaps ... but probably not.

[cogitator]

Sea Change: Carbon dioxide imperils marine ecosystems

The process has been predicted since the 1980s; these papers are from 2004. Testimony below is from a month ago.

HEARING ON EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND OCEAN ACIDIFICATION ON LIVING MARINE RESOURCES

The slightly humorous aspect of this: I don't think Gore even mentioned it in AIT.