Fossil Fuel Combustion: Recent Amounts, Patterns, and Trends of CO2

Several types of human activity have introduced perturbations that impinge on the natural global carbon cycle. During the past century or so, one of the major perturbations has been the release of carbon from long-term storage through the combustion of fossil fuels. During the next 100 years fossil fuel use will almost certainly be the major source causing increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.