The only fact we know is that we don't know enough..
It doesn't stop people thinking they do though.
You are right. We have so little understanding or data that it is simply impossible to make any calls for or against human impact on CO2 figures.
A woman I used to work with had a good way of looking at it. Our planet goes through major changes on a yearly basis, categorised into seasons. Now imagine if each season lasted 10,000 years, and was just a natural cycle of the planet. There would be no records or living memory of previous seasons, so imagine the panic that would spread if the trees started turning orange, and temperatures started going down, and it started raining more... People would start to think the planet was dying. In actual fact, its just a natural cycle that we do not have enough data to understand.
The simple thing you have to understand is most people are stupid. It doesn't take much scratching of the surface to realise the numbers (and graphs, a la Clarkey) presented to you by the Daily Mail, etc are misleading or even completely meaningless. And even a large proportion of people who understand that are still subject to 'following the crowd' and being drawn into opinions based on popular belief. And Governments and Businesses know that. Naturally, they then pander to those belifes (which in turn re-enforces them) for their own benifit, be it winning votes, or making money.
Meanwhile, other potentially hazardas emissions are being completely ignored, and other global issues being pushed aside in favour of Mr MP winning Mrs Bloggs vote because "he's cares about the environment because he has fitted solar panels to his roof".
CO2 is a marketing excersize, and its working. At a personal level, I have not been given anywhere near enough meaningful information to form an opinon either way on the effects of human activity on CO2 emissions. Those who dismiss the impact as having no effect are as misguided as those who are certain is is having one, but nothing compares to the idiocy of either side of the argument being used to impose laws.
