http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/18/business/18FORE.html “On a round trip from New York to London, according to the calculations of the Edinburgh Center for Carbon Management in Scotland, a Boeing 747 spews out about 440 tons of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.”
I screwed up here before in saying that since a 747-400 carries only 170 tons of fuel (215,000 liters) it can’t produce more than twice that in carbon dioxide. But it probably can: I forgot about the oxygen it takes from the air.
What disturbs me more, though, is that the amount (mass) of gas produced is greater than the amount (mass) of fuel burnt. So a car filled with 40 liters (30kgs) of petrol produces at least 30kgs of (mostly harmful) gas. (Petrol has a specific gravity of 0.75, so a liter of petrol weighs about 750g.) How many tons of petrol do you burn each year? For how long have you been driving?
Also: it’s the Edinburgh Centre, not the Edinburgh Center! You can’t Americanise the spelling of a name! 17:27
