Estimate the total amount of carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere by all autom

Question

Estimate the total amount of carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere by all automobile travel in the United States over the past year.

You are given: for every gallon of gasoline burned by an automobile, approximately 10.2 kg of carbon dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere.

This DB is about finding different sources of information (you must cite sources by giving its URL), presented different ways. There are several ways of looking at the problem.

For your first posting, explain (using numbers and units) how you got your answer. Possible routes of inquiry might include these questions:

a) How many cars are used for travel in the United States?

b) How many gallons of fuel are burned by those cars? How many miles are driven?

        You might start with gallons of gas sold for cars, or miles driven, converted to gallons burned, for cars driven in the USA.

c) In determining your answer, what assumptions did you have to make?

        How big or little an error did the assumptions make in your calculations?

Use the following facts:

A). 253 Million cars functioning and running in 2015

B). 136.78 Billion gallons gas sold DAILY.

C). 3.1 Trillion miles driven in 2015.

D). aprox 1.519 metric tons of CO2 or 83% yearly.

Explanation / Answer

US consumed 19.3 million barrels per day in year 2015. Here is a source:

http://www.nacsonline.com/YourBusiness/FuelsReports/2015/StatisticsAndHistoricalContext/Pages/The-US-Petroleum-Industry-Statistics-Definitions.aspx

We know that 1 barrel = 42 gallons.

Hence, 19.3 million barrels = 810.6 million gallons of oil per day.

Hence, total oil consumed in 2015 by US = 810.6*365 = 295869 Million gallons = 295869000000 Gallons

CO2 produced on burning 1 gallons of oil = 10.2 Kg

CO2 produced on burning 295869000000 gallons oil = 10.2*295869000000

= 3017863800000 Kg = 3017863800 Metric Tonnes (In 2015)

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