Reply To: Cap and Trade

[Brian H]

Lerner wrote: Not to get involved in this interesting discussion–don’t have time–but people do need to do arithmetic right. Fossil fuel burning releases to the atmosphere about 200% of the CO2 needed to account for the increase in atmospheric CO2, not 3.5%.

Sorry, disagree.
RATE OF INCREASING CONCENTRATIONS OF ATMOSPHERIC
CARBON DIOXIDE CONTROLLED BY NATURAL
TEMPERATURE VARIATIONS
http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2008/2007JG000583.shtml

ABSTRACT
Studies of the temperature anomalies during the last 27 years show a close relationship with
the varying increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. Volcanic eruptions and La Niñas reduce CO2
values and El Niños increase them. This close relationship strongly indicates that ocean
temperatures and the solubility of CO2 in seawater control the amount of CO2 being absorbed
or released by the oceans. It is therefore likely that the increased CO2 concentration in the
atmosphere is due to a natural global warming and that CO2 produced through fossil fuel
combustion by humans can not disrupt this balance. An advanced statistical multiregression
analysis confirms this conclusion. Therefore it is likely that there is no anthropogenic climate
change on a global scale. The natural exchange of CO2 between ocean, biomass on land and
the atmosphere is very large. In only four to five years all the CO2 in the atmosphere has been
recycled through the oceans and the biomass system. The annual anthropogenic human
production of CO2 is neutralized by nature in as little as 12 days. Recent studies of the solar
forcing, changes in cosmic radiation and its role in cloud formations explain the global
warming that has taken place since 1910.

According to measurements by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U S DOE, the total
reservoir of CO2 in the atmosphere (expressed in carbon equivalents) is 775 Gtons,

The human contribution of CO2 to the atmosphere is estimated to 7-8 Gton C per year, which is one percent of the existing CO2 in the atmosphere. If we add the absorption of CO2 into the oceans and biomass of 92+101 =
193 Gton C, we can calculate that the annual human contribution corresponds to only12 days of natural turnover.

12×100% / 365 = 3.3%

I was rounding for simplicity.