Increased rainfall rates have also been attributed to urbanization--the heat generated from cities (the Journal of Applied Meteorology). Satellite data has shown that rainfall rates are enhanced 20 to 40 miles downwind from city centers because the rising warm air contributes to thunderstorm development.
Here it stands to reason that the internal combustion engine would have something to do with that; simply reducing emission standards doesn't lower the temperature of engine after a commute...
In fact, the oceans and the forests aren't the carbon sinks that modern science has led us to believe.
First off, the ocean simply cannot take up carbon fast enough to match the increases; only 40-50% of the carbon added since 1880 has dissolved in the ocean.
And a University of Hawaii study has found that drought conditions cause an increase in salinity which in turn causes a decrease in the strength of the sink.
The ocean's phtyoplankton absorbs CO2, but when researchers tried fertilizing the phytoplankton beds, Oliver Wingenter, a chemist at New Mexico Tech, reported that undesirable gases were also produced; emissions of methyl bromide (which depletes the ozone layer) and isoprene (a hydrocarbon that generates green house gases) rose sharply.
As for our forests being a sink for carbon, a recent Greenpeace study has found that between 50 and 60% of the existing boreal forests (boreal forests make up almost a third of the world's forests) are likely to disappear as a result of the expected doubling of carbon dioxide over the next 30-50 years, such that the decaying forests will then become a major source of more greenhouse gases.
Recent studies have articulated the terribly high cost of inaction, but we're all screwed here because industry doesn't want to foot the bill for cleaning up its act.