Cut CO2 Emissions by 4% - Stop Breathing!
by matt @ 8:14 pm. Blogged under Science & Technology, Living and Dying
When we breath we produce Carbon Dioxide (CO2), the more exercise we do the more we produce, so I thought I’d investigate how much CO2 could be saved if everybody in the world breathed half as much for a year. Al Gore has been having the same thoughts too: “We breathe out carbon dioxide, and this in turn causes global warming. I’m going to start holding my breath for two minutes, thirty times per day, in order to combat global warming. I would suggest everyone follow my lead and hold your breath every day. It will prevent the earth from being destroyed.” By my own calculations if we all breathed half as frequently we could reduce CO2 emissions by over 1 billion tonnes per year - or around 4% of total global output (25 billion tonnes).
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a waste product made when the body breaks down food for energy (metabolism). The kidneys and lungs regulate the levels of carbon dioxide, bicarbonate, and carbonic acid in the blood. Blood carries carbon dioxide to the lungs, where it is breathed out. According to a study by the USDA, an average person’s respiration generates approximately 450 litres (roughly 900 grams) of carbon dioxide per day. I calculate this to be 0.3285 tonnes per year per person. There are over 6.5 billion people in the world (6,557,136,735), which, if they breathed half as much (saving 0.16425 tonnes of CO2 per person per year) would save over one billion tonnes of CO2 (1,077,009,708).
If we can slow down our metabolism we will breath less, there are several ways to do this:
1) Exercise less; burn less sugar and eat less food (also indirectly reducing food transport emissions too – but making people a bit fatter and increasing passenger flight emissions). Stop playing badminton and football, start playing dominoes instead.
2) Sleep more; when we sleep breathing slows, the heart rate also slows. Stages 1 and 2 are light sleep in which breathing is slower than when a person is awake. Stages 3 and 4 are called slow-wave (delta) sleep, in which the person’s rate of breathing slows down further. During REM sleep, it is normal to have short episodes when breathing stops (apnea) – even better!
3) Meditation; the Chinese may be taking a lot of flack for starting up one coal fired power station each week, but they do at least have the edge on the breathing front. Yogic breathing is slow, infrequent and environmentally friendly.
4) Start a campaign for global non-breathing day – a day which we all spend sleeping in, doing no exercise and meditating. Who needs an economy anyway?
Technorati Tags: CO2, carbon dioxide, stop breathing, global warming, al gore
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November 24th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
How much CO2 do we emit per each breath?
January 17th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
How much co2 emissions does the average person create in a year? plz send me an email as soon as possible
February 12th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
I’m now a desciple, and there’s a large number of individuals that I shall encourage to ’stop breathing’ for the sake of the planet!!!!
February 14th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Matt, an observation.
The CO2 emission you refer to were probably calculated based on a resting individual inhaling and exhaling say 25 times a minute?
So what now about the true carbon cost of the 2012 olympics. surely the high respiratory rate of the competing athletes adds to the carbon cost of the games?
And what about the combined footprints of the world’s marathons put together. For 4 hours you could have upwards of 45,000 athletes spewing out tonnes of carbon! Who has the time to work those stats out?
March 2nd, 2007 at 3:55 am
Are you morons for real or is this a joke. Here’s an idea. Maybe we could save the planet if Al Gore, Leonard DiCaprio, Melissa Etheridge and the rest of you brainwashed jack-asses stop breathing all together. Have you fools ever wondered why we don’t still live in an ice age? Maybe the planet heats and cools an its own. Volcanoes spew way more so-called greenhouse gasses than humans could ever create. Maybe we should outlaw volcanoes next.
March 3rd, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Actually from what I’ve read volcanoes release more than 130 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year - substantial but a little over one tenth of that breathed by humans.
March 7th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Wow, I was lying in the bath today, and wondering how my CO2 pollution compared to my cars’. Its a diesel, 159g/Km (these are units used by the world outside US). I worked out that a years motoring (10K Miles - this is the same as US unit) was about 3000Kg. So the 4 of us in the family emit 40% of the cars pollution.
OK people, here is my next ‘bath’ thought - where is all the extra CO2 in the atmosphere? How much has the percentage CO2 increased? If (as I suspect) the percentage is the same, where is it? Or is the concentration increasing and we are all going to suffocate, and we are not being told? So global warming solutions we have are:
1. Stop making babies - double whammy, no breathing or driving.
2. Make more babies - double whammy - more breathing and driving - we all suffocate or, its all cobblers (as we say in the UK)
Does anybody else think that we need some actual scientific answers to CO2 chemistry before parking up?
March 7th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
I’m looking forward to Channel 4’s programme on Thursday night debunking the CO2 myth completely.
March 12th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
How ridicolous, such victims to ego delusion to think that global warming threatens your way of life. This ordeal is fantastic for society isn’t it?, now all the scared little monkey’s can get so wrapped up in something that has nothing to do with existence and fear something they think they know about instead of fearing the unknown. I forgive and love you.
March 13th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
And a follow up article which may interest previous comment makers… I’m starting to lean the other way.
http://www.firetop.co.uk/2007/03/13/global-warming-is-not-manmade-relax/
April 4th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
what is the difference between an average person and someone who is obese as it relates to thier personal daily emission. Is thier any corelation to thier weight, anviornemnt, etc.
April 5th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Where was the study that you found that said an average human puts out 480 liters of CO2 per day?
May 3rd, 2007 at 8:18 pm
There’s a major misunderstanding here. If coal took CO2 out of the atmosphere as fast as it put it back in, then there would be no (or far less) of a problem. The same goes for oil. The problem is that the carbon they accumulated over millions of years is being burnt in 200.
Humans take in as much carbon dioxide as they produce, so the impact is tiny.
September 12th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Just over 40 years ago I studied a course dealing with the environment.I can well remember that part of thge course revolved around studies that suggested the world would be overpopulated in 40 years time.Is this now a fact,plus the fact we are all living longer so natural balancing of the population has changed.So are we really contributing to Global Warming?
Perhaps it would be a better idea if some of the company representatives stayed at home one day a week and used electronic contacts to their customers instead of driving around the country at excessive speed.You always know when a representative passes you,on a corner or within a designated speed limit area.How often do they plan their route?!!!
Perhaps I am cleverer than most I can get 53 mpg out of my car when the manufacturer staes 48 mpg.5 drive at 55=60 mph and on most occasions find myself at the next set of traffic lights behind the idiot that a few miles previously had tailgated me prior to overtaking’
If people used their brains more effectivly we would all be better off, but whatever we do if Global Warming is really threat we won’t stop it anyway
September 12th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
A very timely comment John for today’s blog entry dealing with fuel efficiency here.
December 11th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Yes!! The reason why humans are so great is our ability to doubt and require evidence before something is defined as definitive truth. There are alot of doubters in Global Climate Change but as usual the voice of the doubter is never heard, instead we hear sensationalist voices and opinions. Reports by scientists use language like “could”, newspapers and politicians turn this into “will”. The person on this blog has done some investigation and discovered we can severely reduce the CO2 output, simply by reducing how much we breathe and even more significantly if gyms, football and athletics are banned!
All I ask is that you dont just accept that global warming is happening and/or that man is responsible, but investigate, research and understand and then form your conclusions.
Yes CO2 is the giver and taker. Too much on Venus makes it very hot and too little on Mars makes it jolly cold; the ice age ended because of an increase in CO2 causing the earth to warm… the iceage happened be…
December 13th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
[…] of Al Gore have a great solution, stop breathing… This entry was written by Greg Farries and posted on Thu Dec 13, 2007 at 2:33 pm and filed […]
December 14th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
The average numbers are handy - but they don’t show the real relationship.
I published the following in order to put some perspective on the whole CO2 debate:
http://propodean.com/co2.aspx
There is no zero sum option in spite of the environmental lobby claims.
December 14th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
One thing to note - how much carbon does building a car take… A lot more I suspect than than it will EVER put out in it’s entire lifetime.
December 30th, 2007 at 3:52 am
PROBLEM: Carbon does not come from nothing. Humans can only emit a fraction of the carbon they consume. It’s not as if you breathe in Oxygen and suddenly and spontaniously convert this on a nano-atomic level into carbon atoms. The CO2 we emit in our breath is based on whatever we eat. Perhaps a low carbohydrate (atkins) diet, can help our CO2 output?
January 6th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
1) Exercising less would actually increase emissions as those journeys would not be lost, they world be done by car instead meaning that people become less fit therefore using more energy to make the remaining journeys on foot or pedal cycle. Fat or less physically fit people burn more carbon then their slimmer and more physically fit counterparts Stop playing badminton and football, start playing dominoes instead.
2) Sleeping more; will also not help as it is a sign that people are getting less physically fit.
3) Meditation could work and certainly as that also helps increase physical fitness.
4) My response to starting a campaign for global non-breathing day is already covered in the other points.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
A slight correction to what I said earlier today. I accidently forget to delete the line saying”Stop playing badminton and football, start playing dominoes instead. My Advice would be to play both if you so desire as that keeps you mentally active which helps towards keeping you physically active so therefore helps in your overall fitness keeping the carbon emission down when you walk or use a pedal cycle
February 8th, 2008 at 1:54 am
I’ve been trying to find data to answer this for years, but to no avail, please can somebody help….!! At what point is it more CO2-economical to drive than run?! Surely if you are running and breathing out more CO2, there must come a point at which its more efficient to drive….The London Marathon for example, if every participant was in a bus would it help reduce our CO2 emissions annually??!!
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
this is the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. If we all start exercising less, sleeping more and start meditating we will all become very sad individuals. Get a grip and talk about some realistic ways of cutting CO2.
March 11th, 2008 at 4:12 am
whoever wrote this article hasnt thought of the implications much at all… if we breathe less, exercise less.etc… wtf?>
use your common sense… a person breathing by riding a pushbike to work is going to put out far less CO2 emmissions than if they drive their car… if more people rode bikes and less bought cars then the electricity used for manufacturing cars will be less. (bikes obviously cost less to manufacture than cars in electricity)
and you just need to be in close proximity to an obese person to hear how much they breathe in comparison to a healthy person from any kind of physical exertion