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Sunday, April 14, 2013

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Convert carbon dioxide (CO2) weight to carbon (C) weight

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CO2/3.67 = C 

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ex: 40 GtCO2 ≈ 10.9 GtC

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1 Gt (Gigatonne) = 1 billion tonnes

1 tonne = 1,000 kg

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Also: 1 Pg = 1 Gt

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1 Pg (Petagram) = 1 quadrillion grams

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Soil specialists tend to use Pg, as they are used to working with gram units per square meter of soil area. Atmospheric specialists tend to use Gt. 


Convert carbon emissions to ppm atmospheric CO2

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GtC/2.12 = ppm

To convert emissions of carbon to atmospheric ppm CO2, carbon sinks must be taken into account. 

So far, terrestrial and oceanic sinks have taken up about 50% of CO2.

source

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ex: 40 GtCO2 emissions ≈ 10.9 GtC

10.9 GtC/2.12 ≈ 5.14 ppm CO2 before accounting for sinks

5.14 ppm CO2 x 0.5 ≈ 2.57 ppm CO2 after accounting for sinks

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