Percentage of total CO2?

Tipsy Mac

Anyone know what percentage of total CO2 in the atmosphere man is responsible for?

Lennoxschips

Just a wild stab in the dark here...

CO2 has oscillated between 180 and 280 ppm between ice ages and non ice ages. So without humans you'd expect us to be at 280 ppm. Currently at 385 ppm, so 385-280 = 105 ppm human. 105 / 385 = 27% of current CO2, or... 105 / 280 = 37.5% of pre-industrial CO2 levels.

But somebody else might have a more accurate figure at hand.

Tipsy Mac

Cheers but what I am ideally looking for is a breakdown of X% man, X% animals and X% nature.

bonkey

Tipsy Mac wrote:

Cheers but what I am ideally looking for is a breakdown of X% man, X% animals and X% nature.

How do you calculate that?

For example... if man cuts down a forest, is the resulting change man-made or not?

Capt'n Midnight

Do you want the current amount, or the rate of production ?

Does anyone have any stats on the change in the ratios of Carbon isotopes in the atmosphere compared to the past ? s decrease in C14 would imply more fossil fuel. But would not include burning forests or bogs or methane form flooded dams or permafrost. It probably would not include methane hydrates.

Lennoxschips

C-14 istopes have been influenced heavily by nuclear testing.

Lennoxschips

Here's a nice diagram about the annual carbon cycle on Earth:



I believe the units are in gigatons.

Capt'n Midnight

Lennoxschips wrote:

Here's a nice diagram about the annual carbon cycle on Earth:.

Mellor

Tipsy Mac wrote:

Cheers but what I am ideally looking for is a breakdown of X% man, X% animals and X% nature.

Well take it that the extra 27% is from man. And the rest is the animals and nature. From Lennoxschips' post

Nukem

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions