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Originally Posted by Blackarican
Everyday, factories run and people drive their cars. While one person and their car may be minuscule enough not to draw attention but what about the other couple of hundred million that run across America? Not even counting the other nations. I have no idea how much carbon a volcano releases (it probably is an immense amount) but how often does a volcano erupt? Yes the plants use up the carbon dioxide we release but aren't we still expanding and developing land?
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Land can't be expanded by humans. What's here is here. If landmass increases, it's due to shrinking water tables and/or rising volcanic action.
Development takes away what land we alread have and farming depletes the soil of nutrients in addition to introducing non-native plantings to regional areas, further taking away natural plant growth. The destruction of rainforests for the purpose of farming is a well known example of abusing the land we have. Add to that strip-mining, expanding cities and old-growth wood 'harvesting'. Plants take in carbon dioxide, but we're losing plantlife at an alarmingly rapid rate.
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Originally Posted by Blackarican
I kinda like polar bears and think that while the planet has taken care of itself for the past couple of hundred million years some human activity has still made some small change if any in its short amount of time present. BTW, how do plants dying in the Autumn affect CO2 concentration in the atmosphere?
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Anything that decomposes gives off gases, plants and trees are no exception.