Some people think that it is implausible that humans can be affecting the amount

Question

Some people think that it is implausible that humans can be affecting the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere because the atmosphere is so big and we are so small. The total mass of the atmosphere is very large - about 5 times 10^18 kg. But CO_2 is a fairly small fraction of this - about 6 times 10^-4 of its mass. According to the website on carbon footprints, 1 the average amount of CO_2 produced by a person in the US is about 20 metric tons per person per year. (One metric ton is 10^3 kg.) If every person in the world produced this much CO_2 every year, how long would it take to increase the amount of CO_2 In the atmosphere by 20%? (This is oversimplified, but gives us a reasonable idea of whether it is at all plausible that human produced CO_2 can be significant) Be sure to clearly state your assumptions and how you came to the numbers you estimated, since grading on this problem will be mostly based on your reasoning, not on your answer.

Explanation / Answer

total mass of the atmosphere is about 5 *1018 kg.

20% of it would be about = 1018 kg = amount of co2

now. it every person produces 103 kg of CO2 in a year. where population of the world is around 7.4 billion

= 7.4* 109

thus per year CO2 production will be = 7.4* 109 *103

and

let x be the year to take proposed amount CO2 in atmosphere

x* 1018 = 7.4* 109 *103

x = 7.4/106 = 7.4 *10-6 year

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