June 12, 2008: Algae

[spudcon]

So, HLJ, how does that graph have credibility, given what Imigo computed of 106.23 pounds per day per American. That figure will be higher yet, if you consider children too young to have access to CO2 emitting equipment. But still, even 106+lbs a day is ridiclous.

[xoxoxoBruce]

It's not what you personally produce. It's your share of all the power plant's output, your share of all the motor vehicles, trains and planes, your share of all the concrete production and construction. It adds up to nearly 20 tons per person, per year.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

your share of all the concrete production and construction.

We all know China has a lot of construction going on, but check out this graph of concrete use in 2007 by country. This is not per capita, but overall. Based on this data.

[onetrack]

I've never had it fully explained to me yet (but maybe Al Gore can produce the explanation - he does that well, with glib answers for most things that are difficult to explain) .. how Carbon Dioxide, which is a heavier-than-air gas .. can climb to sufficient stratospheric heights, and in sufficient quantities, to act as a global warming agent .. ??

Note the simple explanation on the following site .. and I quote ..

CO2 gas is 1.5 times as heavy as air, thus if released to the air it will concentrate at low elevations.

http://www.uigi.com/carbondioxide.html (it's towards the bottom of the first text box ..)

Now, I notice on the following, MI university, glib GW site .. no mention ANYWHERE of Carbon Dioxide being 1.5 times as heavy as air .. and concentrating at LOW ELEVATIONS .. ??

Global Warming Horror .. http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/greenhouse.htm

Maybe I missed something in science class?? .. maybe it was when I was asleep?? .. or maybe when it was I was too busy admiring how shapely, and how long, the legs were, on Miss Snorks .. ??

[glatt]

Air gets mixed up by wind.

See the "Cloud Wake" IOTD.

[spudcon]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

It's not what you personally produce. It's your share of all the power plant's output, your share of all the motor vehicles, trains and planes, your share of all the concrete production and construction. It adds up to nearly 20 tons per person, per year.

I think I see how this works. We(theUS) put 20 tons of CO2 per year per capita in tha atmosphere, while China, which has a very huge population, are, for the moment, is charge with only 2 tons per year per capita. What about the actual readings per country?

[Imigo Jones]

Originally Posted by spudcon

We(theUS) put 20 tons of CO2 per year per capita in tha atmosphere, while China, which has a very huge population, are, for the moment, is charge with only 2 tons per year per capita.

spud, from the Times article I was excerpting above:
The average American is responsible for 19.4 tons. Average emissions per person in Russia are 11.8 tons; in the European Union, 8.6 tons; China, 5.1 tons; and India, 1.8 tons. . . . [Earlier] In 2007 China’s emissions were 14 percent higher than those of the United States.

You engineers might smirk, but I like simple "story problems" to recast the numbers . . . :
1
Chinese population / U.S. pop. = 1,322 million (2007 est.) / 301 mil = 4.39
Chinese per cap emissions (tons) / U.S. = 5.1 /19.4 = 0.2629
Pop. ratio X per cap emissions ratio = 4.39 X 0.2629
= 1.15, or close to "14 percent higher" in article

2
(Chinese pop. X per cap emissions) / (U.S. pop. X per cap)
= (1,322 mil X 5.1 tons)/(301 mil X 19.4 tons)
= 6,742.2 million tons / 6,014.0 mil tons
= 1.12, or close to the "14 percent higher" of the article.

CO2 gas is 1.5 times as heavy as air

Even at 1.5 times as heavy as air, it's hard to fathom that each American is "responsible" for 106 pounds per day. I don't disbelieve it--it's just astounding. I totally understand that this is the average of all industrial processes, construction, transportation that occurs--still just astounding!

[Future side research project: How much CO2 per day does the average adult produce simply from respiration? Is it even 1 pound?]

But 106 pounds a day. Really, somebody's wasting a lot of fossil fuels, building stuff, etc. in a way that I would not approve and would never make use of. [Yahoo email smiley with halo not available for linking anymore.] This is not counting distant roadways, schools, and such for the common good. Speaking of cooking with concrete, not sure that all dams (China's, infamously) are really for the common good. Air Force One and presidential candidates criss-crossing the country every week or every day--take a train, you wasteful egomaniacs!



"Lincoln leaves for Washington, D.C., from Springfield, Illinois" (larger version)

[HungLikeJesus]

Every gallon of gasoline burned produces about 20 pounds of CO2.
From here.

CO2 from electricity production varies based on the fuel source. For wind, solar, and even biomass, the CO2 is essentially zero, once the equipment is operating (though there is CO2 generated in the manufacture and installation of the equipment).

Electricity produced from natural gas creates less CO2 than electricity produced from coal (because coal has more carbon per unit of energy).

According to Wikipedia:

... Since the useful energy output of coal is about 30% of the 6.67 kW·h/kg(coal), we can say about 2 kW·h/kg(coal) of energy is produced. Since 1 kg coal roughly translates as 1.83 kg of CO2, we can say that using electricity from coal produces CO2 at a rate of about 0.915 kg/(kW·h), or about 0.254 kg/MJ.

This estimate compares favourably with the U.S. Energy Information Agency's 1999 report on CO2 emissions for energy generation, which quotes a specific emission rate of 950 g CO2/(kW·h). By comparison, generation from oil in the U.S. was 890 g CO2/(kW·h), while natural gas was 600 g CO2/(kW·h). Estimates for specific emission from nuclear power, hydro, and wind energy vary, but are about 100 times lower. See environmental effects of nuclear power for estimates.
...

So, for every kWh of electricity used, between 1.3 and 2.1 pound of CO2 is produced, unless the electricity is from renewable sources.

For a typical household use of 29 kWh/day, this results in production of 38 to 61 lb of CO2 per household per day.

Natural gas or oil used for space heating also produces CO2.

There are, of course, a lot of other sources of CO2, but this helps put the 106 lb/person per day into perspective.

Here is a chart showing sources of CO2 production in the US in 2005. From here.

[SPUCK]

[quote=HungLikeJesus;463720]Every gallon of gasoline burned produces about 20 pounds of CO2.
From here.

Explain how you create 20lbs of CO2 from 6.5 lbs of gasoline?

[HungLikeJesus]

Originally Posted by SPUCK

Explain how you create 20lbs of CO2 from 6.5 lbs of gasoline?

Yes.