Since Coign is actually engaging in debate, I'll join in.
The link includes the following claim:
Quote:
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We know that man is responsible for about 3 % of it [Carbon dioxide]
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Here is the graph on CO2 in the atmosphere called the Keeling Curve.
Note that the vertical axis does not start at zero so this isn't quite as dramatic as it may look at first.
However, the level of CO2 has risen from around 315ppm to 385 ppm in the last 50 odd years. This is an increase of 70ppm, or 22%. As far as I know, all that increase is due to human activities - mostly burning fossil fuel, but also deforestation, making concrete, refining aluminium etc.
So the claim that only 3% of the CO2 is due to humans is ... unsupported.
I read a bit of the original link. It's an op-ed blog from an obscure website. The language is rhetorical, the author presents no qualification, and worst of all, no references are supplied. There are plenty of mistakes. For example, about half-way down, it asks how we can know the temperature of the earth. It does show how by cherrypicking individual measuring sites, you can make any number you like. It then drops the question as if there is no better answer. Of course what real scientists would do is take a weighted average from all weather stations and cross reference it with all other sources of information about temperature.
Thanks for your civility Coign, but the mere presence of numbers and graphs does not guarantee the study has been done properly.
Peace out.