If CO2 emmisions were halted immediately would the CO2 levels drop in our atmosphere?

Question

If CO2 emmisions were halted immediately would the CO2 levels drop in our atmosphere?

Answer 1

And why do you need to drop CO2 from atmosphere? To kill all trees?

Answer 2

yes and we would be in waisted deep of the stuff and all the farm land would be buried

Answer 3

If the CO2 emissions stopped in one day. The air would be a lot cleaner, you would feel it immediately. You should also expect the next years to be cooler. And you should expect that ski respportrs will make a lot of profit :)

Answer 4

Wouldn't matter. We only produce about 3% of CO2 as humans, the rest is produced by volcanos, decomposing plants, etc. So if CO2 emmisions were halted that would mean the planet had died.

GW is a lie quit wasting what few brain cells you have left worrying about it.

Answer 5

No,  because EVEN IF some grand wizard had the power to halt all CO2 emissions tomorrow - we'd all be dead within a few weeks from starvation (ever think about how your food is produced, processed, and gets to you?).

So then 4 billion dead rotting corpses would be oozing CO2 back into the atmosphere.

Have a nice day!

Answer 6

Only very slowly, as natural sinks absorb the excess. It would take several decades to get back down to 350 ppmv, which is considered the highest safe level.

Answer 7

How do you suggest stopping CO2 emmissions?

We breathe out CO2. Perhaps the enviro weenies can take turns holding their breath or for those devoted to carbon offsets pay someone else to do it for you.

Answer 8

"The fact that China is setting up one new coal-fired power station each day"

Do you have any idea how insane this sounds? I have heard one new plant a week, but even that is speculation.

"If CO2 emmisions were halted immediately would the CO2 levels drop in our atmosphere?"

CO2 levels would not drop immediately, no. Though even in the few years afterward we could see the percentage of man made CO2 go down. It would take on the order of several thousand years to completely remove all the CO2 we pumped into the air, but the majority of CO2 would be gone within a few hundred years.

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Edit:

Nicole K,

Your source isn't something I would exactly call "credible", but interesting nonetheless. Peter Russell is a fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, whose site describes their goal as:

"Noetic sciences are explorations into the nature and potentials of consciousness using multiple ways of knowing—including intuition, feeling, reason, and the senses. Noetic sciences explore the "inner cosmos" of the mind (consciousness, soul, spirit) and how it relates to the "outer cosmos" of the physical world."

While I find Peter Russell an interesting man, he and his site are things I would feel comfortable describing as crackpot.

Check your sources people.

Answer 9

It doesn't look like they would much. Anthropogenic CO2 is only 3% of the atmospheric CO2. 97% of the CO2 is from natural sources. 36% of atmospheric CO2 comes from the oceans which have been slowly warming slightly.

CO2 dissolves more in cold water than in warm water. As the

oceans warm they have to give up their CO2 to the atmosphere. There are ocean currents that move cold water form the polar areas to warmer latitudes. These currents operate at great depth and flow on extremely long time cycles. Eventually the polar water (with high CO2 levels) comes up to the surface in warmer lattitudes... where it has to give up some of its CO2.

A simple way to see the effect that temperature has on atmospheric CO2 is to graph the CO2 measurements from Mauna Loa. http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/data/in_situ_...

You will see a gradual increase in CO2 concentration over time but also a very clear annual rise and fall. This rise and fall in CO2 levels is mostly influenced by the Ocean's changing temperature.

This is an interesting paper on the oceans role in atmospheric CO2

http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/people/gilbert.p...

Can anyone tell me if the diurnal variation in CO2 concentrations is the opposite way round (in terms of time of the year) for Northern and Southern hemisphere measurements?

Answer 10

You know I really couldn't care less at this point!

Answer 11

CO2 emissions are necessary for life to exist on earth.  For example, when you breathe you produce CO2 gas.

The key here is to keep things in balance.  For example, the green plants and algae that require CO2 in turn produce the Oxygen we breathe.

Although buildings produce nearly half of all greenhouse gas emissions, a survey released by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) shows that 40 percent of voters believe cars and trucks are the highest contributors, compared to just seven percent who accurately identified buildings as the top cause of emissions. Studies show that buildings produce 48 percent of dangerous greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change, and that they consume 71 percent of electricity produced at U.S. power plants.

Other major contributors of building greenhouse gases are fully vented septic systems and landfills. Both of these sources of greenhouse gases can be reduced by using zeocarbon based septic vent pipe filters which as anadded benefit also remove odors. The zeocarbon inside these filters can then be recycled every few years as a nitrogen rich, ornamental garden fertilizer.

It takes up to one year for one tree to fix the CO2 in the equivalent of 3 litres of gas. We produce more than 300 litres of CO2 gas from the plumbing vent stack pipes on an individual homes septic tank each day.  So we need to do more than just plant trees.  We need to actively participate in sequestering CO2 and other Greenhouse gases at home.

It takes up to one year for one tree to fix the CO2 in the equivalent of 3 litres of gas. Septic vent pipe filters can do the same thing in one day, every day, for years before the zeocarbon must be recycled back to the earth.

Answer 12

Even if all carbon dioxide emissions were stopped right now, temperatures would still rise. And that would never happen, as emissions are actually increasing. The fact that China is setting up one new coal-fired power station each day is a definite confirmation that stopping emissions now is nothing but an idealistic dream. Climate change is unstoppable because people have entrapped themselves in a vicious cycle, and humanity has probably already passed the point of not return. Why? Because warming promotes warming. Increased temperatures lead to increased evaporation of water into the atmosphere; this water vapor also acts as greenhouse gas. Higher temperatures lead to the warming of Arctic tundra as well. The permafrost is melting, and contained within the permafrost is methane – a greenhouse gas twenty-one times more potent than carbon dioxide. The majority of climate models don’t even take these dangerous “loops” into consideration. There’s no question that hope is dying, there’s no question that the planet is too, and there’s no question that anyone brave enough to say so is proclaimed an apocalyptic dooms-dayer.

Answer 13

How do you halt CO2 emissions?  Every person exhales CO2.  Every person would have to stop breathing.  Every engine and motor would have to be eliminated.  

If it were possible, the CO2 level would drop but would it be a good thing?