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| Photo by Wigwam Jones. Flickr.com |
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_weight
Friday, April 20, 2012
U.S. is Second Highest for CO2 Emissions
Carbon Dioxide(CO2) is a chemical that exists in natural sources all around the world. However, the CO2 emissions that are created by burning certain kinds of fuel are very harmful. These types of fuel that create such awful emissions range from gasoline in our cars to coal in coal burning power plants. This is a problem because as we are trying to find cheaper and cheaper ways to produce energy for our daily lives coal is the cheapest option. Coal is also one of the most dangerous options because it emits the most Carbon dioxide. CO2 emissions from these and other sources are one of the leading causes of global warming.
According to Wikipedia.com in 2008 the United States was the second leading contributor to CO2 emissions. The only country with more CO2 emissions was China. Wikipedia also states that China's CO2 emissions in thousands of metric tonnes from the year was 7,031,916 and the United State's was 5,461,014. Let me put that in perspective for you. These numbers are in thousands of metric tonnes. One metric ton is equal to 2,204.62262 pounds. So if you multiply that big number by 1,000 then multiply your product by the emission numbers given for China and the U.S. you will have the actual amount of CO2 emission for the year. Now, I'm a math major so I'm used to seeing a lot of numbers but these numbers are a lot for me to wrap my head around. Consider this; the average male in the United States weighs 191 pounds while the average female weighs 164 pounds. Now if you go back and think about the numbers for the CO2 emissions and compare them to the average weight of an adult person these numbers should seem outrageously huge. I'm not going to propose that we should just stop using any form of energy to avoid emitting CO2 because that would not be realistic but I do think that we should cut down on some of the things that we do in order to cut down on these emissions and make our planet safer for all of us. There are so many small things that we could do that would make the biggest difference.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_weight
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_weight
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Dear egraham7,
ReplyDeleteI'm very interested in your blog because I'm concerned about global warming as well as pollution. You clearly are too. I liked that you presented both sides in this post instead of tip toeing around the complexity of the issue.
" One metric ton is equal to 2,204.62262 pounds." This blew my mind. I'm not a math major in the least but I can tell that's outrageous. I liked that you broke it down though so your readers could better understand the severity of the issue.
" I'm not going to propose that we should just stop using any form of energy to avoid emitting CO2 because that would not be realistic but I do think that we should cut down on some of the things that we do in order to cut down on these emissions and make our planet safer for all of us." I like that you were honest in saying you're realistic and know the reality of solutions. I wished that you would have added ways to cut down though.
I loved your blog. It was very informative and well researched. Good job!