[geeks] Global Warming questions...

[wa2egp at att.net]

-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net>
>
> Hello all,
> 
> I've been thinking about it lately, and I have a few factual questions that I 
> don't know how to look up the answers to.
> 
> First off, my questions are based on the fairly simple-minded understanding 
> that plants "convert" Carbon Dioxide to Oxygen (photosynthesis) - there may be 
> more to it, but for my questions, I think that description suffices...
> 
> First off, how much carbon dioxide does an average human "throw off" in a 
> year?
> 
> Second, how much greenery (trees, grass, etc.) are needed to convert that much 
> carbon dioxide back to oxygen?
> 
> My thought is that if someone wants to claim to be carbon-neutral, you have to 
> start with securing sufficient plants to "scrub" your carbon dioxide output 
> back to oxygen. THen we can talk about buying carbon credits for cars, planes, 
> etc...

That's not a bad idea if it was that simple.  Unfortunately, some of the CO2 goes into the ocean where it can get processed like on land but there can be sedimentation which can lock up some of the CO2 in rocks or in fossil fuels. Those rocks can be exposed and weather, releasing CO2 or it can be dissolved in ground water from the rocks.  Unfortunately, humnans have been burning fossil fuels and releasing CO2 that took millions of years to be trapped in a lot shorter time.  Do other processes speed up to absorb it all?  Apparently not since the CO2 level has risen from about 315 ppm in 1958 to over 370 ppm in early 2001 with a 5 ppm wobble due to seasons.  The last figure is about 35% higher than pre-Industrial Revolution times.  From some measurements it appears that there is an increase of about 3.1 gigatons of CO2 more each year.  From estimation the ocean and land absorb about 84.6 Gtons and release about 82.75 Gtons each year.  We have to get a lot more plants. :)  Or st
 op bur
ning as much fossil fuel and getting rid of forests.

Bob