Author: Collin Dunn
You’ve almost certainly heard the phrase “carbon emissions”, “global warming”, and “climate change” in the same breath, and most everybody has at least a pretty basic idea about where they come from.
And now let us give a little time at this ubiquitous term for these ubiquitous emissions.
Carbon emissions: The basic
Carbon emissions is come from burning fossil fuels which contributes to global warming. Each time when you turn on your car, watching television, travel to work or shopping, clothes washing or board an airplane, you are producing carbon emissions.
Technically, carbon emissions should be called carbon dioxide emissions or you shortened it, carbon emissions = carbon dioxide emissions = contribution to global warming.
Carbon emissions: Who cares?
Who cares about carbon emissions? Carbon dioxide creates the largest contribution to the greenhouse effect, which is what is slowly, yet persistenly, warming our globe. That makes it the most important greenhouse gas out there; it’s currently responsible for about 10 – 25 percent of the greenhouse effect. The next two on the list is methane and ozone, incidentally, do not crack the double digits, so carbon emissions are in the lead, in a bad way, when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.
All this is to say, really, that we live not only in a carbon-based world, but a carbon emission-based society and economy, and the scope of activities that produce carbon emissions is just huge. Anything involving coal, natural gas, petroleum has a carbon emission ticket attached; that includes all transportation and a whole lot of home heating systems and even barbeques, just as a small snapshot.
Carbon emissions: The science
Here’s a quick tour of the science of carbon emissions. Fossil fuels have ultimately been created of fossil aged feedstocks (think dinosaurs) have been throughout millions of years of Earth’s cycles, and now discover themselves under oceans, in the ground, and other places not often directly in our backyards.They’ve had a long time to “stew,” for lack of a better word, and have a high concentration of energy, which is why someone a few hundred years ago had the idea to use them for fuel.
So, these super-old, carbon-based, previous dinosaurs are dug up and, in one way or another, lit on fire. They have high concentrations of carbon, which, when mixed with oxygen through combustion, create carbon dioxide (or CO2). So, what was formerly interred in the Earth’s crust is now out, and the carbon that was sequestered with it comes, too.
Carbon emissions: Beyond fossil fuels
So carbon emissions are created when we burn fossil fuels, but that’s not the whole story. Activities that are often less prescient to many of us on a day-to-day basis have huge emissions, too. Land use changes – mainly deforestation in the Amazon, Borneo and many other tropic areas – account for almost 10 percent of global greenhouse gases. It’s sort of a matter of addition by subtraction; more carbon emissions stay in the atmosphere as deforestation occurs, since trees and other plant life absorb carbon dioxide as they grow.
Livestock are also becoming a larger player in greenhouse gas consideration; though they tend to supply more methane than anything, they still merit mention here. How do cows play in to this, you ask? Two words: Enteric fermentation. This is the process like cows that takes place in the digestive systems of ruminants; without getting too deep into the microbiology behind it (you can learn more from Wikipedia), basically, it results in an excess of methane being debarred from the animal. That’s right: Cow burps and farts, as well as the decomposition of their poo, are serious contributors to greenhouse gases. Agricultural by products essentially account for more than 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions — and that’s more than results from residential sources.
Carbon emissions: Reducing
Finally, how to reduce your carbon emissions? As an Americans your carbon footprint – the measurement used to estimate your personal carbon emissions – is about 20 tons. If you want to cut that number in half, follow my next posting about how to reduce carbon emissions and you will have lost 10 tons in what seems like no time flat.
Another articles by Johan Young you may interest in reading: Volkswagen Hybrid, Hybrid Automobiles, Electric Hybrid Car, and Saturn Vue Hybrid.
