Well JJ..part of me agrees with some of your comments..try driving. A London cab or riding a motorbike as a courier for years and convince me vehicles don't cause major pollution or severe asthma problems..?
After seeing how much mankind has decimated the Colombian rain forest so we can have coffee etc and many other scenarios across the globe..I'm sure it's all having a contributory effect on us all?
I don't disagree with you and you can see pollution just by the dirt build up on houses on main roads. I just don't believe the amount of CO
2 created by cars amounts to much in the scheme of things. When you look carefully at the usual graph they use, they display it in such a way that the amount appears magnified when it is quite a small amount since major industrialisation.
What is happening in the Rain Forest and to land generally is terrible; major logging and clearance for products such as coffee and palm oil. The latter, particularly in South East Asia, which is having a major impact on orangutans. They also say the Rain Forest contains many types of flora yet to be identified which may have properties that could help save lives. Clearance means we might never find those 'miracle' plants. Again though how can we expect a local who can make money by planting oil palms to not put himself and his family first. Money is needed to support local people to discourage them from this decimation. Thing is then, who pays? I and many others already object to the money we pay in aid when charity should start at home.
Hard questions really. Perhaps all those research grants and conference costs could be used instead.