Carbon dioxide
What's it all about? What does it look like. How much does it weigh? How big is it? |
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What's all the fuss about?
Hi. I'm Karl. I am a CO2 molecule. I am one of the CO2 molecules that naturally lives in the atmosphere. I like it up here.
I get to help regulate the temperature of the atmosphere and ensure that life of earth gets all the heat it needs and no more. The guy below is Kelvin.
He is a CO2 molecule as well, but he is not supposed to be in the atmosphere. 
Normally Kelvin he lives underground where he has been for 600 million years ago. However, as you can see he is a bit hot under the collar because someone dug him up, sent him to an oil refinery and then blasted him through a jet engine. Best thing for him is to go back in the ground. That's what My Clean Sky does. My Clean Sky takes kelvins out of the atmosphere and puts them in the soil where they can do some good.
offset means to counterbalance or remove the CO2 produced by the plane you fly in. |
The Chap: 'I say, old boy. Jolly long way to the end of this tube.'
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How big is 1,000 kg of CO2? |
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We want you to know that a ton of CO2 weighs less than your car, but would fill a tube big enough to crawl through over half a kilometre long.
It is 25 degrees celcius and I am standing on the beach on a fine day with a big bottle full of compressed CO2 gas. The gas inside the bottle weights 1,000 kg. I have a big empty bag it measures 1 metre by 1 metre and is rolled up. I am going to inflate it with the gas in the bottle.
As the bag fills, it starts to roll out and eventually, the bottle is empty and the bag has rolled out over half a kilometre.
It now contains 556.2 cubic metres of CO2 gas.
See The Chap below. |
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Carbon dioxide:
- is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms bonded to a single carbon atom.
- is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state.
- is a trace gas being only 0.038% of the atmosphere.
- is a colorless, odorless, non-poisonous gas that is a normal part of the ambient air.
- is produced by the burning of fossil fuels and is one of the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.
What is an atom? The atom is a basic unit of matter consisting of a dense, central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. Relative to everyday experience, atoms are minuscule objects with proportionately tiny masses. Atoms can only be observed individually using special instruments such as the scanning tunneling microscope. Over 99.9% of an atom's mass is concentrated in the nucleus. |
For the boffins
Volume calculation of one ton CO2
One ton = 1,000kg
One cubic meter = 1,000liters
One mole CO2 = 44.0g (CO 2 = 12.0g + 32.0g = 44.0g)
One ton contains 22,730 moles of CO2 (1,000,000g / 44.0g/mole)
One mole is 24.47L (Boyle's law at 25°C and 1 atmosphere pressure)
Volume of one ton CO 2 = 22,730moles × 24.47L/mole = 556,200L = 556.2m³
One ton of CO 2 occupies 556.2m³ of volume.
Source: www.icbe.com/CarbonDatabase/CO2volumecalculation.asp |
| How much CO2 should there be in the atmosphere? |
Imagine waking one morning to find 10,000 ping pong balls in your lounge room. 
(Note: the 10,000 ping pong balls represent the gas molecules in a small amount of air. Over 99% of them are nitrogen and oxygen molecules). As you are scratching your head, trying to figure out where they all came from, you notice that three of the ping pong balls are green. It's Karl, the CO2 molecule, and two of his mates!
These three green ping pong balls represent the naturally occuring CO2 in the atmosphere - about 275 parts per million - which equates to about three parts in 10,000. Suddenly, you see that there is also one red ping pong ball - a Kelvin - the CO2 molecule that should not be there.
Grrrrr!!
Now, funny as it may seem, you only need one Kelvin to overheat the planet. The boxes below are each comprised of 10,000 pixels. Three of the pixels are green and one is red. It doesn't seem much, but the one red pixel is all that is needed to overheat the planet. |
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Flying from here to there produces hundreds of kilograms of Kelvins.
<< Check your flight emissions now. Help get them out of the air and back into the ground where they belong. When you offset your flights with My Clean Sky, your money funds sustainable agricultural projects that absorb CO2 into the soil.
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| Carbon dioxide was first discovered in the 1750s by Joseph Black, a Scottish chemist. |
Q. How big is a CO2 molecule?
A. Small.
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In fact, a CO2 molecule is very, very, very small.
Consider these two pieces of information:
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Atoms lack a well-defined outer boundary, so the dimensions are usually described in terms of the distances between two nuclei when the two atoms are joined in a chemical bond.
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From end to end a carbon dioxide molecule is about 232.6 pico metres. A pico metre is equal to 1 trillionth of a metre.
So, a CO2 molecule is about 230 trillionths of a metre in length. |
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CO2 molecules may be very small but you produce lots of them when you fly. Calculate yur share of the CO2 from your next flight.
When you offset your flights with My Clean Sky, your money funds sustainable agricultural projects that absorb CO2 into the soil. |
Three natural CO2 molecules and one CO2 that shouldn't be there.
In amongst 10,000 oxygen and nitrogen molecules.
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