Does human activity contribute to global warming, and to what extent?
In 2004, it has been calculated that human activity released roughly 7910 million metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere – or, not quite 8 billion metric tons. That is an almost unimaginably large number, and frequently you hear comparisons to an impossibly long coal-train that goes all the way around the world. By human standards, it’s a lot. By the standards of the Earth, however, it’s a drop in the bucket. Earth’s atmosphere weighs 4.41 million billion tons. Therefore, it’s calculated that, each year, we are putting 6 ppm – that’s parts per million – into the atmosphere. In other words, out of every million pounds of atmosphere… we are adding 6 pounds of carbon. That’s .0006%. Let’s compare this to some other relevant percentages. The FDA regulates how much rodent excrement, insect parts, mouse hairs, and other unpleasantness is permitted to be found in various foods. Now, you might think they’d want to require its absolute absence, but that’s not practical. So, for example, we
In 2004, it has been calculated that human activity released roughly 7910 million metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere – or, not quite 8 billion metric tons. That is an almost unimaginably large number, and frequently you hear comparisons to an impossibly long coal-train that goes all the way around the world. By human standards, it’s a lot. By the standards of the Earth, however, it’s a drop in the bucket. Earth’s atmosphere weighs 4.41 million billion tons. Therefore, it’s calculated that, each year, we are putting 6 ppm – that’s parts per million – into the atmosphere. In other words, out of every million pounds of atmosphere… we are adding 6 pounds of carbon. That’s .0006%. Let’s compare this to some other relevant percentages. The FDA regulates how much rodent excrement, insect parts, mouse hairs, and other unpleasantness is permitted to be found in various foods. Now, you might think they’d want to require its absolute absence, but that’s not practical. So, for example, we
