Volume of CO2 emmissions compared to the total volume of our atmosphere:
As far as I’m concerned, anyone who thinks that our way of life doesn’t affect the environment (climate included) is an idiot. Sorry, but some people still continue believe that we can spew as much CO2 into the air as we want and it will have no long-term effect on the Earth’s climate. You only need to look at exactly how much CO2 is produced by man:
Since 1751 roughly 315 billion tons of carbon have been released to the atmosphere from the consumption of fossil fuels and cement production. Half of these emissions have occurred since the mid 1970s. The 2004 global fossil-fuel CO2 emission estimate, 7910 million metric tons of carbon, represents an all-time high and a 5.4% increase from 2003.
People talk of gas emmissions in terms of mass, which understates the quantity… 
But exactly how much space does 1 tonne of CO2 gas occupy? You only need to look at molar volumes of gases:
1 tonne = 1 million grams.
44g of CO2 = 1 mole = 24.5L of gas (at 25ºC and standard atmospheric pressure)
Therefore, just 1 tonne of CO2 gas occupies 557 thousand litres. (= 22.7 kmoles or 557 m3)
Taking the figure above, annual global CO2 emmission at 7910 million metric tons (7,910,000,000), multiply that by the volume occupied by one tonne (557,000), and we come up with 4.4 THOUSAND TRILLION LITRES OF CO2 GAS PRODUCED EVERY YEAR.
We spew 4,400,000,000,000,000 litres of CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere every single year.
We do not live in an infinite space, not in area, nor in volume. Yes, gravity sucks back all those CO2 molecules to planet earth. So I take the thickness of the atmosphere, from wikipedia:
Three quarters of the atmosphere’s mass is within 11 km of the planetary surface. 99.99997% of the atmosphere by mass is below 100 km.
And the Earth’s total surface area from another source:
The total area of the Earth is approximately 510 million square kilometers.
My ultra quick calculation of volume of Earth’s atmosphere, up to 100km (yes let’s include all of it) = 51 trillion trillion cubic metres or 51,000 trillion trillion litres. That includes the atmosphere, the stratosphere, the troposphere, the mesosphere -yes, the entire fucking quota.
It appears some people claim that we can produce that much CO2 gas, 4.4 THOSAND TRILLION LITRES EVERY SINGLE YEAR, and it no way affects the limited volume of ‘our own’ atmosphere (51,000 trillion trillion litres)!!! That’s equivalent to an increase of 86 parts per billion CO2 gas every single year.
A few points:
- Of course, much of these emmissions are recycled into oxygen by trees and plants during photosynthesis. But while we continue to cut those down that won’t help us with our CO2 problem!!
- The upper atmosphere, the stratosphere, is extremely low pressure & doesn’t actually “hold” much gas.
- CO2 is 1.5 times denser than air.
- Using other estimates of the mass of the Earth’s atmosphere (5 quadrillion metric tonnes) used in the above calculation results in an increase in CO2 concentration of 1.6ppm per year!
- The world’s oceans can also dissolve some CO2, acting like a large reservoir. But here again, there is a limit to how much seawater can take.
Do I even need to elucidate my calculations further????? People claim that our CO2 production has no affect on our precious environment, not even cumulatively! And as an ex-research scientist, that mode of thinking enrages me. 
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This is a thotough piece of work. Good post
Then why, pray tell, has the international community not imposed restrictions on Chinese and Indian emissions of greenhouse gases?
[…] that come our way, that nothing is too great for us to overcome. For example, during a time when greenhouse gas emissions are ever-increasing, we are still urbanising natural spaces at a horrendous rate. We are effectively destroying our […]
I was looking for data and came across your calculations and thought I would offer the following for comment; my math and logic was streatched a bit.
I coouldn’t find how many tonnes of CO2 are in the atmoshere in the first place. (All the source figures I wanted were in Wikipedia but I couldn’t find that one anywhere).
To avoid changing density issues I used the diameter of the earth (12,472 km) and atmospheric presure (10.2 tonnes sq metre) and got
4,984,507,442,800,230 tonnes gas total.
Using relative atomic weights for O2, N2 and CO2 and concentrations of 290,840 - 780,840 - 383 I worked out a figure for CO2 as 1,251,822,758,391.97 (assuming only these 3 gases present).
I also offer it up as what you have calculated are absolute values for additions but I wanted to understand what the absolute amounts are in the first place.
Couple of other things:
There seems to be assumtion that a doubling of CO2 will double its effect but who said, it could change either way? That’s next on my list to track down.
And we are now growing wine in the UK as far north as the romans did 2000 years ago which suggests temperatures haven’t changed quite as the graphs suggest. Hic!
I graduated the University of Wisconsin with degrees in biology and chemistry. My skepticism on this subject directly relates to the fact that many of the scientists now claiming global warming were in the 1970s telling us that if we didn’t change our ways we would be heading into a mini ice age. While I do agree that we should do everything possible to reduce emissions, it is naive and vain to believe that humans alone are responsible. How has volcanic activity been figured into the equation? Statistics are like criminals - if you torture them enough they will tell you whatever you want to hear. Example - all people that ate pickles in 1890 are dead today so we should ban the sale and distribution of pickles for public safety and health.
You are of course entitled to your opinion.
But I actually think it’s naive that some humans are under the impression that we alone CAN’T be responsible. We are a global species, so why not? Is it simple a matter of some of us being too scared too accept this responsibility, so we deny that it’s our fault?
I’ve got a post in draft form that covers this facet, albeit more succinctly. Stay tuned & thanks for your contribution Mr Skeptic!
One part per billion (ppb): Denotes one part per 1,000,000,000 parts, one part in 109, and a value of 1 × 10–9. This is equivalent to 1 drop of water diluted into 250 chemical drums (50 m³), or one second of time in approximately 31.7 years.
So by your calculations, we’re “dumping” an amount of CO2 into our atmosphere equivalent to “dumping” 86 drops of water in 250 chemical drums.
Hardly seems like much at all….
It all depends what are in those drums and what the reaction is, doesn’t it?