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Bill Chameides, Environmental Defense Fund

Summary

Tons of CO₂ pollution. We are always hearing about how many tons of CO₂ pollution we emit. The average American car emits about seven tons of CO₂ in a year; the average American family, about 24 tons; the United States as a whole, over seven billion tons; and worldwide, almost 30 billion tons. The Virgin Earth Challenge (see last week’s post) offers $25 million to whoever can economically remove one billion tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere each year.

But what is a ton of CO₂?

People keep saying to me, I thought CO₂ is a gas. How can a gas have weight? I explain that CO₂ is made up of atoms, and atoms have mass, and with gravity mass has weight. As often as not, my explanation is met with a blank stare. So let me try a different tack.

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