this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2024
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This is how big one tonne of CO2 is (slrpnk.net)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Image from this LinkedIn post

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Not sure it actually demonstrates the extend of the issue. My favourite way to look at it (via ThunderF00t@youtube I believe):

  • dry ice is essentially frozen CO2 ( CO2 in solid form)
  • cca 40 billion tuns per year (cca 5t per person / year, 8 billion people)
  • 1km side cube of dry ice weights cca 1.5 billion tuns (1.560 kg/m3 says wiki)

=> Burj Khalifa has 830 m - imagine huge cube of dry ice 20% taller ( or 3x eifell tower)- all that CO2 boiling off in massive clouds - than add 25 of them - each year. We've been doing this at some scale for decades....

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

Expected it to be bigger, still terrifying

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Wait?! Is this what they mean by carbon capture?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Well, not in such cubes, but I have heard the plan of piping the CO2 into underground caverns.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

Next step is interrogation

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

My brain is not wrapping around this so well.

The co2 in that cube at normal air pressure would weigh 1000 kg?

Doesn't air only weigh a kilogram per cubic meter?

I know co2 is heavier, but is co2 that much heavier?

Like 20 times heavier?

No, I just looked it up, air is 1.2 kg per cubic meter and CO2 is 1.8 kg per cubic meter.

Someone set me straight, I don't get it.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

At standard temperature and pressure (STP) it looks like CO2 has a density of 1.96 kg/m^3. 1 tonne = 1000 kg, so a tonne of CO2 has a volume of (1000 kg)/(1.96 kg/m^3) = 510 m^3 at STP. A cube of that volume would have side length (510 m^3)^(1/3) = 7.99 m, so roughly 8 meters per side.

I don't know how tall that person is, but if we assume around 1.6 m (5' 3") then the cube side length should be about 5 of her. Seems pretty accurate to me.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago

Thank you, this helps, brain wrapping successfully now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

I guess I'm confused on the definition of a "tonne" of CO2. Am I to believe that if that cube was completely full of CO2 that volume of CO2 would weigh 1000kg?

Nevermind, just looked it up. It's actually a measure of volume, just 1000 cubic meters, which makes perfect sense.

Edit: it was actually the first one, although a "tonne" as a measure of volume does exist.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Gas doesn't seem heavy until you handle gas canisters full and empty.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I mean, those are much higher than 1 atmosphere though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Sure. Don't often store more than 7,000 L STP and that's a 2m cube.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You had it right the first time, 1 tonne (1000 kg) of CO2 at standard temperature and pressure would have a volume equivalent to that cube.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago

If it weighs that much why did they have to strap it down. Huh….. Huh /s

[–] [email protected] -4 points 7 months ago (6 children)

I probably make that much in my life. Billionaire make it in an hour, but environmentalists are still blaming me and the plastic straw I used last week

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Nah, that's what the billionaires tell you that environmentalists want, so that you rally against the environmentalists rather than the billionaires.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Divide and conquer is so terribly effective.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

just use no straw and drink straight from the cup, the way you would any drink at home

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Currently about 4.7 tonnes per year is the global average, for americans I found a figure of about 16 tonnes per year. But the second number is probably a few years old.

The average billionaire was estimated at about 8,194 tonnes per year. Or 512 americans. It sucks, but remember that there are way more than 512 americans per billionaire. We all need to change, it's just more extreme of a change the more money you have.

Same with companies. Instead of both sides shifting blame to each other, companies and consumers have to change.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

While I agree with your general point I'd like to say that the relation of company emissions with consumer emissions is a bit different, ultimately what we consider consumer emissions are the company emissions of what the consumers buy.

But that still means we need to change both consumer behaviour and laws restricting companies, reducing consumption is important but so is reducing the pollution involved in producing what we do consume.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

environmentalists are still blaming me and the plastic straw I used last week

Do they really? Are these people here in this room? I know literally 0 environmentalist that would blame you for the plastic straw.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

And there's a difference between "HOW DARE YOU USE A PLASTIC STRAW, YOU EVIL FILTH??" which is what this person probably hears though the filter of their own subconscious guilt and insecurity, versus "Hey folks, we should really consider whether we actually need all these plastic straws, because even the little improvements in our consumption habits can add up to valuable impacts," which is what's actually being said.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

While plastic products do contribute to CO2 emissions, and billionaires do contribute a significant amount of their own CO2 emissions, plastic straws are terrible for wildlife and the environment altogether and should have been banned long ago for reasons completely separate from the CO2 emissions.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

I know you write that to debunk the blame-shifting BS from the person above you and thank you for that. I would like to make a different point though: Plastic straws would have never become an issue if companies like McDonald's hadn't started to hand them out with every single drink for absolutely no reason. If they'd instead been used to allow disabled people to drink more comfortably, all would have been good. But consumers want, and in some cases, expect certain conveniences and companies are more than happy to feed our overconsumption.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

HE USED A PLASTIC STRAW!!! GET THE TORCHES AND PITCHFORKS!!!!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

BUT THE BIODEGRADABLE KIND, WE'RE NOT THE MONSTERS HERE!!!!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Okay?

What's the takeaway from that?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

We're dumping tens of billions of tonnes per year in the atmosphere. Enough to make a difference

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Yes, I'm aware. My question was about the inflatable really?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

When I say US citizens put out 13 tonnes per capita of CO2 a lot of folks have no ideawhatt that means. Is that a lot?

The answer is yes. The US is essentially sticking about 5 billion of these into the air every year, and they dont come down...

CO2 looks clear to our eyes but is opaque in infrared, meaning last year humans blanketed the sky with 35 billion of these heat absorbing gas baloons, that will never come down in our lifetime, but willl make our world hotter.

The few hundred billion we've already put up there is already leading to starvation in poor countries and mass bleaching of coral reefs and disruptions inoceans flows our ocean eco system depends on, oceans... You know, a huge source of food.

So were merrilly marching into a never ending dust bowl that according to the fossil record will terminate with an ice age that will last millions of years.

It'll be great explaining to your kids how cars and cruises and sugary bubble soda was worth sending them into never ending wars for food.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Most people have a hard time visualizing how much a tonne of CO2 is, and that weird thing helps people understand how big it is, and can make them more worried about pollution, and more likely to seek change.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

Ah yes, raising awareness The 20th centuries answer to climate change.

I am so old and cynical. But then I've seen people raising awareness for 40 years and I'd say the results have been uncertain.

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