Carbon Dioxide and my journey to work
The other day I started wondering about how pleasant it would be
to avoid driving through the rush hour every day to go to a place
where, ideally, I'd rather not be .....
My car journey is about 10 miles each way, 200-odd days of the year.
In heavy traffic I get about 40 miles to the gallon (it's a diesel,
so the efficiency isn't too bad even under stop-start conditions).
How much carbon dioxide does my journey to work push into the
atmosphere each year?
Over 200 working days, I do 20 x 200 miles - 4000 miles.
At 40 to the gallon, that's 100 gallons, or 450 litres.
Petrol weighs about 0.9 kg per litre, so that's 400 kg.
Liquid hydrocarbon fuels are about 85% carbon by mass, which
comes to 340 kg.
Multiply by 44/12 and that gives the mass of carbon dioxide.
It comes to about 1.2 metric tons.
This compares with about 4 tons for my personal
carbon dioxide
contribution to the atmosphere each year.
Nigel Deacon / Habitat21 website
