re: #3 Ojoe

Given that carbon dioxide constitutes about 1/3000 of the atmosphere, how does the adjustment of this trace part have such a big effect in a system with many other hugely bigger factors?

I have wondered about the science behind that particular conclusion - big effect from a trace part - for a while now.

I was thinking of that recently and imagined the following somewhat simple analogy, given that CO2 is known to absorb infrared radiation frequencies, whereas it is “transparent” to others.

Take an invisible vertical tube that holds 3000 stacked marbles. 2999 of them are transparent to all radiation and one, randomly placed, is opaque to infrared only.

Now cover the entire surface with such vertical tubes standing next to each other and it is not hard to imagine that, even though there is only 1 in 3000 opaque marbles in the whole, seen from above or below the effect is essentially the same as if there was a complete blockage to infrared radiation.