5 ms·
"half life of CO2 in the atmosphere" is a bit misleading, (most|some) people will think it means the quantity of CO2 in the atmosphere halves every 30 years. Th
by GeoAtreides 6y ago
"half life of CO2 in the atmosphere" is a bit misleading, (most|some) people will think it means the quantity of CO2 in the atmosphere halves every 30 years. That is false.
This NASA link says CO2 stays in the atmosphere for hundreds of years: https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2915/the-atmosphere-getting-a-handle-on-carbon-dioxide/ https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2915/the-atmosphere-getting-a-...
And this site: https://www.skepticalscience.com/co2-residence-time.htm https://www.skepticalscience.com/co2-residence-time.htm
explains that while the individual molecule CO2 hangs around the atmosphere for 3-4 years, it's then merely exchanged with one in the oceans (or maybe one in a rotting tree).
On this study: https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1605&context=earthsci_facpub https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https:/...
on page 4 (shown 25 on the page), you can see the box model of the global carbon cycle. Halflife refers on how long the a CO2 molecule spends in a given box.