Comments on: Albany groups focus on Climate Change http://albanytoday.org/2009/12/07/albany-groups-focus-on-climate-change/ News and stories on people in Albany, CA Fri, 17 Sep 2010 22:03:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Mac McCurdy http://albanytoday.org/2009/12/07/albany-groups-focus-on-climate-change/comment-page-1/#comment-2850 Mac McCurdy Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:12:21 +0000 http://albanytoday.org/?p=1502#comment-2850 Since Albany is about to expend energy and funds, (and perhaps propose taxes) in the name of CO2 reduction, I think a few facts about this gas should be looked at. A web search will, I think, reveal that CO2 is present in the lower atmosphere at somewhat under 4 tenths of 1 percent by volume, and a little more by weight. In scientific liturature it has sometimes been called a "trace gas". Another measurement that is commonly used is the one made by the Mauna Loa lab in Hawaii. They have been doing monthly measurements since 1958 and are currently measuring the presence of CO2 at about 386 ppm. Now ppm is parts per million, and one million is still a pretty big number. Bringing this analysis down a peg to the 100,000 level would put CO2 at 39 parts per 100K parts of atmosphere. So according to the scientists advocating the 350 program a reduction of 4 parts of CO at the 100K of atmosphere level would take us from certain disaster to where our worries would be over. Another interesting aspect of the climate change discussion is the measurement of CO2 in metric tons. The ton we are used to weighs 2000 pounds, and I think the metric ton weighs about 2200 of our pounds. That strikes us as pretty heavy, as in a ton of gravel for our driveway. But metric tons are measured differently when talking about atmosphere. It starts with a measurement of the atmospheric pressure pressing down at sea level. This is found to be about 14.7 pounds per square inch. Mulitply this by the total surface of the Earth and you get the total weight of the atmosphere. This turns out to be about 5 quadrillion tons--that's a 5 followed by 15 zeros. This number is so big as to be impossible for most of us to visualize. Another interesting number is the weight of the CO2 currently in the atmosphere. Multiplying 5 quadrillion by .007 (roughly CO2 by weight) we get somewhere around 25 trillion metric tons (that is 25, followed by 12 zeros) of CO2 currently up there. I mention these things first to question the 350 limit as arbitrary and not well supported by serious scientific research, and also to illuminate Albany's program in light of the size of this atmosphere that we are gearing up to change. Certainly much, maybe most, of the actions suggested in Albany's CAP proposal are good to do on a simple common sense basis. I often ride my bike around town, walk places, and try to keep my energy bills low. But there is a question about how much more we need to do purely on the basis of carbon footprint reduction. Also please note that I am not a trained scientist or climatologist. I think my numbers and information are accurate but welcome any comments or corrections from the no doubt large number of trained proffessionals we have locally. Mac McCurdy Since Albany is about to expend energy and funds, (and perhaps propose taxes) in the name of CO2 reduction, I think a few facts about this gas should be looked at. A web search will, I think, reveal that CO2 is present in the lower atmosphere at somewhat under 4 tenths of 1 percent by volume, and a little more by weight. In scientific liturature it has sometimes been called a “trace gas”. Another measurement that is commonly used is the one made by the Mauna Loa lab in Hawaii. They have been doing monthly measurements since 1958 and are currently measuring the presence of CO2 at about 386 ppm. Now ppm is parts per million, and one million is still a pretty big number. Bringing this analysis down a peg to the 100,000 level would put CO2 at 39 parts per 100K parts of atmosphere. So according to the scientists advocating the 350 program a reduction of 4 parts of CO at the 100K of atmosphere level would take us from certain disaster to where our worries would be over.

Another interesting aspect of the climate change discussion is the measurement of CO2 in metric tons. The ton we are used to weighs 2000 pounds, and I think the metric ton weighs about 2200 of our pounds. That strikes us as pretty heavy, as in a ton of gravel for our driveway. But metric tons are measured differently when talking about atmosphere. It starts with a measurement of the atmospheric pressure pressing down at sea level. This is found to be about 14.7 pounds per square inch. Mulitply this by the total surface of the Earth and you get the total weight of the atmosphere. This turns out to be about 5 quadrillion tons–that’s a 5 followed by 15 zeros. This number is so big as to be impossible for most of us to visualize. Another interesting number is the weight of the CO2 currently in the atmosphere. Multiplying 5 quadrillion by .007 (roughly CO2 by weight) we get somewhere around 25 trillion metric tons (that is 25, followed by 12 zeros) of CO2 currently up there.

I mention these things first to question the 350 limit as arbitrary and not well supported by serious scientific research, and also to illuminate Albany’s program in light of the size of this atmosphere that we are gearing up to change. Certainly much, maybe most, of the actions suggested in Albany’s CAP proposal are good to do on a simple common sense basis. I often ride my bike around town, walk places, and try to keep my energy bills low. But there is a question about how much more we need to do purely on the basis of carbon footprint reduction.

Also please note that I am not a trained scientist or climatologist. I think my numbers and information are accurate but welcome any comments or corrections from the no doubt large number of trained proffessionals we have locally.

Mac McCurdy

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