A gallon of gas weighs 6.1 pounds. When that gas is burned, in your car, your leaf blower, or your lawnmower, it creates 18.2 pounds of carbon dioxide, or almost three times the weight of that original gallon of gas.
Think about it. Carbon DI-oxide contains one carbon atom, which comes from the gas, and two oxygen atoms, which come from the air. Carbon and oxygen have almost the same atomic weight, and that’s how a gallon of gas can produce triple its weight in CO2.
Let’s do some more math. The average American driver buys about 580 gallons of gas per year. That comes out to more than 3,500 pounds of gasoline and more than 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide contributing to a warmer climate, just from one car or truck! That’s five tons!
We could multiply that by the 250 million passenger vehicles on the road in the U.S., but today we’re focusing on individual vehicles and individual actions. There are two ways of lowering your 10,000 pounds of yearly personal carbon emissions: by driving less or by driving a more fuel-efficient car.
A weight loss program is rarely fun but generally pays off in improved health. This is no different. Counting mileage is as tedious as counting calories or carbs. But our planet will be better off if we can each reduce the weight of the greenhouse gas emissions we are producing.
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Photo, taken on October 17, 2000, courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY, with partial support from the Field Day Foundation.