Quote:
Originally Posted by Recusant
So the emissions growth data doesn't factor in the Earths reduced capacity to cope with co2? Factors such as ocean co2 saturation, deforestation etc?
That might explain why there's more "Earth emissions" than in the past. Less capacity to absorb/rid it. I presume they get the measurements based on what is in the air compared to last year, not how much is coming out of an exhaust pipe. It stands to reason that with less being absorbed naturally due to our other affects on the environment that there will be more of it in the air - even if we didn't use co2 based fuels.
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Emission data is determined by what comes out of the "exhaust pipe." Companies are required to keep records on how much chemicals they burn (like oil or coal for electricity) and they are tested for the burning effeicency, so the governments know how much CO2 is actually being produced directly from their industries and cars, rather than indirectly from air samples.
The numbers that I ran took a 0% absorbtion rate from nature and assumed that all the CO2 man made would go right into the atmosphere.
Another few points to add in.
1) As trees are removed (deforestation), that allows new trees to grow and begin filtering out CO2. For many trees (but not all), they stop growing atfer awhile but continue living. While a tree is not growing, it is removing very little CO2. Growing trees remove the most CO2. However, some trees continue to grow as long as they live.
2) As glaciers melt and go from a solid to a liquid, they increase the amount of CO2 that the oceans can hold. Solid water is not capible of have a gas disolved within it, but liquid water is. So the more liquid water that we have, the more capibility to hold more disolved CO2.