Home  -  Articles  -  Forums  -  Blog  -  Billboard  -  Projects  -  Newsletters  -  EcoWorld.org  -  Register!  -  About EcoWorld
Air  -  Water  -  Earth  -  Plants  -  Trees  -  Animals  -  People  -  Energy & Technology  -  Goods  -  Funds  -  Media  -  Tours

Join EcoWorld
REGISTER with EcoWorld, and help us build the Global Environmental Community

Recent Commentary
Bright Source’s Power Tower
Polaris Venture’s Bob Metcalf
Fossil Fuel Reality
Affordable Green Homes
Novel Thermal Storage
Volvo’s Future Car
Miles Electric Vehicles
ESS Compliance Software
Financing Photovoltaics
Trees, Water & Climate
Antarctica’s Ice Mass
GM’s Volt on track for 2010
Unions - Ideals vs. Reality
Strategic Green
Venrock’s Matt Trevithick
Aquabirds & Aquabuoys
Revisiting Biofuel
Greens and James Inhofe
100% EVs vs. Series Hybrids
Rational Environmentalism
Farallon’s Fur Seals
Hydrogen Hydrogen Oxygen
Natural Gas Series Hybrids
Freeways, Cars & Trucks
Photovoltaic vs. Thermal
E-Cards
Send an
Electronic
Postcard
EcoWorld Tours
EcoWorld '05 EcoTour Survey
OneWorld Journeys
EcoWorld Forums
Biofuel Forum
Electricity Forum
Reforesting Forum
EcoWorld Feature Articles
Optimizing Biofuel
China's Eco-Crisis
India's Hydro Power
French Nuclear Debate
Markets Solve Scarcity
India's Water Consciousness
EcoWorld EV Gallery
Free Market Greens
Biofuel's Mixed Blessings
Reforesting the Tropics
China's Energy Demand
India's Solar Power
Our Endangered Oceans
India's Green Future
Global Warming Priorities
CO2 Taxes
China's Renewable Energy
Biofuel Bonanza
Inconvenient Truth Rebuttal
Reforesting the World
Inconvenient Skeptics
Solar Energy in Egypt
Saving Wild Species
Factory Farmed Biofuel
Global Warming Facts
Electrifying Central Asia
India's Nuclear Power
Climate Catastrophe?
Bioethanol vs. Biodiesel
Asia's Embattled Tigers
Factory Hog Farming
China's Wind Power
Ethanol in Africa
Biodynamic Farming
Global Warming
Growing Biofuel
India's Biodiesel Scene
Saving Giant Sea Turtles
India's Water Future
Clean Coal Technology
Central American Biocorridors
Arctic Rivers Save Aral Sea
Profitable Reforestation
Earth Projects
Arctic to Aral
India's Rishi Valley
Mesoamerican Biocorridor
Clean the Ganges
Refill the Aral Sea
Deforesting to Reforesting
more Projects . . .
Maps & Information
Countries - Watersheds
EcoRegions

Knowledge is Power!
Support EcoWorld
Buy Books Here
(Amazon Affiliate)

The Hydrogen Economy:
The Creation of the
Worldwide Energy Web
and the Redistribution
of Power on Earth

Blue Gold:
The Fight to Stop
the Corporate Theft
of the World's Water
Today is May 12, 2008
Editor's Commentary

Gigatons & Cubic Kilometers

First of all, a gigaton is one billion metric tons.  One metric ton (2,200 lbs.) is what a cubic meter of water weighs.  One billion metric tons is what one cubic kilometer (one billion cubic meters) of water weighs, and it is called a gigaton.

Next, remember atmospheric CO2 includes two oxygen atoms, and weighs 3.7x the carbon feedstock.  So if there are 70 gigatons of carbon in the Amazon, for example, burning the remaining Amazonian carbon will release 2.7x that many gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere (ref. Amazon Ecology Project).  So far, tropical deforestation alone has resulted in the release of about 475 gigatons of CO2 into our atmosphere.

So how many gigatons of CO2 are we contending with, anyway, in our atmosphere?  Referencing and extrapolating from J. Schlorrer’s 1994 study, “Why Does Atmospheric CO2 Rise?”, there are probably about 3,000 gigatons of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere right now.

Forests are at best carbon neutral, they grow, absorbing CO2, and they expire in various ways, releasing it again.  It is the permanent removal of forests, and the permanent addition of carbon mass to the atmosphere, that matters.  Temperate zone forests don’t store nearly the carbon mass per area compared with tropical forests, more than negating the greater area of temperate forest that has been lost.  And loss of temperate forests has far less impact on thermal or hydrological conditions - not nearly as much as tropical forests.

Clearly if total tropical rainforest restoration (impossible) were to be implemented, the permanent addition of fast growing trees permanently removing 475 gigatons of CO2 from the earths atmosphere (every 7.8 gigatons of carbon removed lowers CO2 concentrations by one PPM) would be a very good thing.  But compared to CO2 impact, the hydrological and thermal impacts of adding or removing tropical rainforest is far more significant.

Each year, nearly 15,000 gigatons of H2O, that’s 15,000 cubic kilometers of water, is evaporated from what remains of our tropical rainforests.  For perspective, consider there are only about 12,900 (ref. Nasa Earth Observatory) cubic kilometers of water in the entire atmosphere at any given time, and that each year only about 50,000 cubic kilometers of water rain onto the continents.

Where there is no longer tropical rainforest, and it is well over 50% gone, there is proportionally reduced evaporation, less rainfall, and complete loss of the reflective cloud cover that perennially forms over tropical rainforest.  Add these even more significant hydrological and thermal effects of tropical deforestation to the 475 gigatons of atmospheric CO2 that will either be added or deleted based on whether or not we remove what’s left, or replace what’s gone.

One Response to “Gigatons & Cubic Kilometers”

  1. [TS] Mine Owner Has History of Run-Ins On Work Issues | Become An Environmentalist Says:

    [...] Gigatons & Cubic Kilometers First of all, a gigaton is one billion metric tons.  One metric ton (2,200 lbs.) is what a cubic meter of water weighs.  One billion metric tons is what one cubic kilometer (one billion cubic meters) of water weighs, and it is called a gigaton. Next, remember atmospheric CO2 includes two oxygen atoms, and weighs 3.7x […] [...]

Leave a Reply


Google

Learn Much More!
Click & Buy Books
(Amazon Affiliate)
Cradle to Cradle:
Remaking the Way
We Make Things

World Encyclopedia
of Trees


Natural Capitalism:
Creating the Next
Industrial Revolution


Encyclopedia
of Mammals

Support EcoWorld!
Click & Buy Books
(Amazon Affiliate)
Copyright 1993 through 2007 EcoWorld Inc., All Rights Reserved
EcoWorld, EcoWorld Tours, and "EcoWorld - Nature & Technology in Harmony" are registered Trademarks of EcoWorld Inc.
Credits, acknowledgements, disclaimers, and how to obtain permission to reprint EcoWorld content.