This represents only about 1 percent of the total amount of this gas that is normally present in the atmosphere, but it is enough to introduce a major imbalance. Natural processes are being overwhelmed, and CO 2 is accumulating. Taken industry by industry, the list of the biggest polluters and producers of gases that aggravate the greenhouse effect is easy to establish. The remaining 14 percent comes mainly from heating homes, but also from agriculture because of machines that use oil and gasoline. Agriculture and forestry, however, can be credited favorably, as plants consume more CO 2 than the amount that is produced to raise them.
Nature can no longer keep up.
The carbon cycle, which is a natural phenomenon, is the foundation for organic chemistry and thereby the chemistry of life. This cycle is tightly organized on our blue planet. Forest and savanna fires produce the gas, as well as various kinds of organic decomposition and fermentation, all of which are perfectly natural phenomena. But these are only very rough guesses, and they may err on the side of optimism. Moreover, shortly before the opening of the conference at The Hague, the magazine Nature published two very pessimistic studies relating to the protective role of forests with regard to CO 2 .