How big is a tonne of CO2 pollution? I%26#039;m trying to picture how big a cloud of pollution 1 tonne of CO2 really makes. I mean, one tonne of carbon all squashed together makes for a cube a little over 1 metre each side, more or less, but if you took the average CO2 spread as it might, are we talking about a cloud that would cover a football pitch, a large University campus, a state or a country?

How about if you laid one tonne of CO2 flat in a 1 atom thick puddle? What would that cover?

I guess you%26#039;d have to factor in if that tonne of CO2 is stuck somewhere where you get smog conditions or not, but
I was just reading this article on CNN, http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapc... and it got me thinking about how to convince the world that we just have to make it interesting to the greedy side of mankind to scuttle as much pollution as possible and not just shop it around. How can it possibly make sense to invent a quota for a country that can%26#039;t produce the mess, just to buy it?

Best Answer

you could get a rough estimate of it as an ideal gas

V =nRT/P

just convert tonnes to moles for the n term

it is close to 600 cubic meters at atmospheric pressure and room temperature - this assumes it does not diffuse and remains together as pure CO2.

Asker's Rating:

Thank you all! I%26#039;ll go with this answer because it comes closest to answering my question. I guess I should have phrased it better: How large a bubble does one tonne of CO2 make at a) Sea Level, at room temperature and b) up in the atmosphere where it does so much harm.
600 makes for a big bubble!

Other Answers (4)

• In all the tons of CO2 generated ,U only consider what is produced. No credit to what plants have taken care of . Without CO2 our plants would die is that what U want..
  U are looking at the wrong thing,U should be looking at Oxygen. The percent of O2 is 20.9% ... The lower level of survivsl is 19.5%, after that U die. The presaent level of CO2 is 300 ppm,which is .000300% which is nothing.. When the oxygen level starts down we have a problem..
• bigger than yo could even imagine sweetie
• everyone in colorado must be dead. OSHA mandates that we warn people of low O2 at 19.5%, we do not die at that level.
• Tonne as spelled is a metric term.
  US standard would be 2200 lbs. at 16ounces per lbs.
  CO2 is ca compound: 1 atom Carbon
  2 atoms of oxygen
  now consult the Periodic Table of elements, for the exact weight of each of the two elements. add the weight of the carbon atom to the weight of two oxygen atoms then after converting 2200lbs to like weight equivalents divide by the combined weight of CO2 this figure will indicate how many Co2 molecules are require to make a tonne of CO2.
  So if you haven%26#039;t guessed by now a tonne is a tonne all of it measured at sea level at one atmospheric lb per square inch.