[ RadSafe ] SIC -Let's stop citing incorrect numbers on C02 releases

[Stewart Farber]

I wrote an email a few days ago which may not have been delivered to all, but the error in various posts underestimating CO2 releases by a factor of over 5 is being made again and again.

The release of CARBON into the air  from man's burning of fossil fuels is a bit over 8 gigatons [8E9 tons]. This equates to something around 32 gigatons of CO2 [32E9 tons], not 6 gigatons of CO2 release which is only about 20% of the actual level of release.

Regardless of the potential effects on climate of human releases of CO2 we need to get the simple fact right of the level of release of CO2 by humanity.  8 gigatons of Carbon release per year from fossil fuel burning now is up about 40% from only 20 years ago.

Stewart Farber


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Marty Bourquin" <Marty.Bourquin at grace.com>
> To: "The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics)
> MailingList" <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 9:28:05 AM
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Keeping an open mind Are we keeping an open
> mind?
>
> Temporarily ignoring whether or not the rise in temperature is part of
> the natural cycle or is being caused by man made factors - is there
> anyone on this list that truly believes that putting over 6.2 billion
> (with a B) net tonnes per year of CO2 into the atmosphere