Although there could be an argument that the rise in carbon dioxide is solely due to the deduction of biomass, it is extremely likely that the rise in carbon dioxide emissions is mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels. The figure below demonstrates this belief [23].
It is evident from the figure that the carbon dioxide emissions that can be attributed to fossil fuel burning has increased steadily from the years 1960-2009, while emissions attributed to land use change has remained relatively constant. Even though there is some noted uncertainty in the land use change numbers, it is safe to conclude that most of the emissions are due to fossil fuel burning since the magnitude of carbon dioxide emissions is overwhelmingly larger for fossil fuel burning than the approximate land use change. Also, the Global Carbon Project predicted that in 2009 only 10 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions stemmed from land use change [23]. Lastly, the percentage of global carbon dioxide concentration that is attributed to land use change has decreased in recent years and will continue to decrease due to new federal policies limiting deforestation [23].
