In 1990, the US was responsible for 48 percent of the developed world's carbon emissions,

--snip--

A scientific paper published in October 1998 ("A Large Terrestrial Carbon Sink in North America Implied by Atmospheric and Oceanic Carbon Dioxide Data and Models," Fan et al, Science, Vol. 282, p. 442 ff.) concluded that the North American continent acted as a huge carbon sink, absorbing about 1.7 billion metric tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide per
year. As North America is responsible for only about 1.6 billion tons of carbon emissions per year, the continent is actually a net consumer of carbon dioxide.

The same paper, however, found that the Eurasian continent was in a much less healthy state, consuming an "uptake" of only about 100 million tons of carbon per year while at the same time being responsible for 3.6 billion tons of emission.

Now excuse me if I'm wrong but 1.6 billion tonnes of US emissions is rather less than 48% of (3.6+1.6) billion tonnes, and we haven't added in the rest of the world.

These sets of figures are incompatible and the "Science writer" who has mashed them together should be shot.

Anyone who tries to argue anything based on this is onto a loser straight away!