Tag Archives: CO2

Bottled Water

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This week’s theme of water had me thinking about bottled water and the growing popularity of reusable water bottles within my generation. It got me thinking about the waste produced by bottled waters–how much CO2 would it take to produce enough bottles of water for each student on campus to get their necessary daily intake of water?

The average human needs to drink 3.7L of water per day, and each plastic water bottle is around 1L of water. There are 2,050 students at Union, and if everyone drank the recommended amount of water per day, that would total 7,585L of water, and 7,585 plastic water bottles. According to Luqel, to produce 500ml of a single use plastic water bottle it takes 82.9g of CO2. How much CO2 would be produced to create 7, 585L of plastic water bottles, then?

Well, 500ml is equivalent to .5L. .5L produces 82.9g of CO2. .5L doubled is 1L, and 82.9g doubled is 165.8g of CO2. To produce one 1L plastic water bottle, it takes 165.8g of CO2. For all of the 2,050 students of Union to drink 3.7L of water per day, it would take 1,257,593g of CO2(7585 x 165.8).

That is just for one day of water. For a year of water? It would take 459,021,445g of CO2.

This is just something to think about when considering reusable vs. one use plastic water bottles. Not to mention the microplastics!

Climate Change Due to Increase of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

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Carbon dioxide (measured in parts per million or ppm) is a greenhouse gas that impacts the heat regulation of the Earth, impacting the climate change that we see today. The increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide is specifically responsible for about two thirds of the Earth’s rising temperatures and energy imbalance, contributing to the change in global climate patterns also known as climate change. Certain human activities like driving a car emit carbon dioxide. Additionally the usage of fossil fuels emits large amounts of carbon dioxide into the air which traps heat in the atmosphere, causing global warming. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic decreasing people’s activity (especially during the heights of the pandemic where many people were not traveling by plane or car) and the economic slowdown, the global level of carbon dioxide hit a new record high in 2020 of 412.5 parts per million (ppm). Another concerning point is that humans are adding a lot more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than is naturally produced and can be accommodated for. The global growth rate or atmospheric carbon dioxide is now 2.3 ppm per year and is about 100 times faster than previous historical natural increases in carbon dioxide. According to these measurements, the human impact on the plant and the excessive amounts of carbon dioxide emissions are impacting climate change and the overall temperature and well being of Earth. There are ways for us to decrease carbon dioxide emissions such as carpooling, decreasing leisure flight usage and doing simple things such as turning off the lights. 13% of the greenhouse gas production (including carbon dioxide emissions) in the Unites States are from the production and transportation of food. So it is also important to eat local and organic food to help decrease the excessive carbon dioxide production. According to these articles, the production of carbon dioxide is rapidly increasing, but there are simple ways that we can all help decrease our carbon footprint (the total amount of greenhouse gases we produce from our actions) and help global climate change.

 

Citations:

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide

https://cotap.org/reduce-carbon-emissions/

First Detection of Reduced Human Carbon Dioxide Emission

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There is a first for everything and for the first time researchers have found short-term regional fluctuations in atmospheric carbon dioxide worldwide due to emissions from human activities. Scientists used a combination of NASA satellites and atmospheric modeling to discover this change in Carbon Dioxide emissions. The study used data from NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 to measure drops in CO2 emissions during the COVID-19 pandemic from space.

A few earlier studies investigated the effects of lockdowns on the levels of Carbon Dioxide emissions early in the pandemic. The studies found that global levels dropped slightly in 2020. Nonetheless, by combining OCO-2’s high-resolution data with modeling and data analysis tools from NASA’s Goddard Earth Observing System the team was able to narrow down which monthly changes were due to human activity and which were due to natural causes at a regional scale. This is how they were able to conclude that some of the drops in Carbon Dioxide levels were caused by human activities. The article goes on to explain what Carbon Dioxide is, and how to notice slight changes in its level in the atmosphere.

References

Evans, Jessica Merzdorf. “First-of-Its-Kind Detection of Reduced Human Carbon Dioxide Emissions.” Phys.Org – News and Articles on Science and Technology, Phys.org, 1 Apr. 2022, https://phys.org/news/2022-04-first-of-its-kind-human-carbon-dioxide-emissions.html.

How Keeling Contributed to the Worlds Hottest Topic

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Charles David Keeling began taking daily measurements of the Carbon Dioxide concentration in the atmosphere at the top of Mauna Loa in Hawaii in 1958 (Monroe). This program is still around; however, there are more locations around the world where data is collected (Monroe). He began this work while doing his doctoral studies in California. He noticed that there was more CO2 at night in Big Sur, and in the afternoons, there was almost always 310ppm (Monroe). He took measurements of atmospheric CO2 in multiple locations, and all found a concentration of 310 ppm until he went to Mauna Loa and found a concentration of 313 ppm (Monroe). The concentration continued to rise until May, when there began to be a decrease in atmospheric CO2 and then an increase back in October (Monroe). Keeling began to realize that the concentration of atmospheric CO2 was reliant on “seasonal changes of growth and decay” (Kennedy, 1). The data collected is now known as the Keeling Curve and is heavily used to monitor our atmospheric CO2.

 

 

 

Kennedy, Caitlyn. “Carbon Dioxide: Earth’s Hottest Topic Is Just Warming Up”. NOAA Climate, 2009, https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/carbon-dioxide-earths-hottest-topic-just-warming.

Monroe, Rob. “The History Of The Keeling Curve”. The Keeling Curve, 2022, https://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/2013/04/03/the-history-of-the-keeling-curve/.