Carbon Dioxide - An Original Source

We hear about carbon dioxide (CO2) as one of a number of atmospheric gases that are responsible for anthropogenic global warming. This is primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels. As a percentage of the atmosphere, CO2 is minuscule, less than four one hundredths of a percent (actually 0.38% or 380 parts per million (ppm)). 

One source of carbon dioxide is, well, us. Every time we exhale, we create CO2. As a matter of fact, every time every living, breathing thing exhales, it produces carbon dioxide. So how much do we produce? On average, a human produces about 2.3 pounds of it per day (based on various web sources). It adds up. Take a look at this table I constructed. 

CO2 per person each day: 2.3 pounds

2008 Earth Population: 6,694,254,040 (World Bank)

Human CO2 Production each day: 15,396,784,292 (Billion) lbs.

Human CO2 Production each year: 5,619,826,266,580 (Trillion) lbs.

Human CO2 Production each year: 2,809,913,133 (Billion) tons

About three billion tons per year. Sounds like a lot. Should we be worried that  human beings, by their mere breaths, are contributing to global warming? Not  really. We humans among all of the animals, plants, oceans, etc. are part of the natural carbon dioxide cycle of the earth. The real issue is the long run and the debate about global warming. But we can  avoid that debate by burning much less fossil fuels and being much more  efficient in our use of major sources of energy---What I call in my book, "Conservation Without Deprivation."