Magnitudes of Carbon Dioxide

Ever wondered how something as little as a molecule of C02 can change the world? But more is different: CO2 turned Venus into a overheated hostile planet and without greenhouse gases Earth would be a snowball.
This post collects - without any special order - amounts, years and references and provides the facts needed to see the complete picture. Updates will happen when ever new information is available.
2005 7.85 billion tons
of carbon passed into the atmosphere
Global Carbon Project
2005379.1 ppm
Quantities of CO2 were measured at 379.1 parts per million (ppm) for 2005, up 0.53 per cent from 377.1 ppm in 2004, WMO said in its latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin
UN News Centre
1750280 ppm
The CO2 concentration has risen from about 280 ppm in the year 1750 to about ~380 ppm today.
Postdam Institute
200650,000 tons
UK traffic lights emit about 50,000 tonnes of CO2 per year through energy use.
BBC Magazine Monitor
2006400 litre
Just one cow gives off enough harmful methane gas in a single day to fill around 400 litre bottles.
CBBC News Round
>1751315 billion tons
Since 1751 roughly 321 billion tons of carbon have been released to the atmosphere from the consumption of fossil fuels and cement production. Half of these emissions have occurred since the mid 1970s. The 2004 global fossil-fuel CO2 emission estimate, 7910 million metric tons of carbon, represents an all-time high and a 5.4% increase from 2003
Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center

1.98 g/L
gaseous CO2 has a density of 1.98 gram per litre
Wikipedia
3,000 giga tons
The mass of the Earth atmosphere is 5.14×10E18 kg, so the total mass of atmospheric carbon dioxide is 3.0×10E15 kg (3,000 gigatonnes)
Wikipedia
145-255 mill. tons
According to the best estimates, volcanoes release about 145-255 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.
Wikipedia
19972.93 tons
Marland’s estimate of the average absorption of a U.S. commercial forest is 0.8 tons of carbon/hectare/year. By converting this number into the units mentioned above, this equals 2.93 tons of CO2 /hectare/year, or 1.19 tons of CO2/acre/year.
Jerry Hannan
1 ton
One ton = 1000kgOne cubic meter = 1000litersOne mole CO2 = 44.0gOne ton contains 22730 moles of CO2One mole is 24.47LVolume of one ton CO2 = 22730moles × 24.47L/mole = 556200L = 556.2m³One ton of CO2 occupies 556.2qm of volume.
International Carbon Bank and Exchange
20078.7 mill. tons
Because the California wildfires occurred just as the study was about to be published, the researchers calculated how much carbon dioxide was likely to come from the devastating blazes Oct. 19-26. It’s a lot: 8.7 million tons.
MSNBC / AP
322 mill. tons
On average, wildfires in the United States each year pump 322 million tons of carbon dioxide. That’s about 5 percent of what the country emits by burning fossil fuels, such as gasoline and coal, according to the new research published online Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal Carbon Balance and Management.
Weather.com / AP
3,000 giga tons
The Greenland ice sheet could melt completely and irreversibly if 3,000 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere, according to scientists.
Nature.com
475 giga tons
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.
Ecoworld.com
20086 giga tons
Human activity generates six gigatonnes of carbon dioxide per year, while the Earth can recycle only three gigatonnes. The rest accumulates each year in the atmosphere, thus reinforcing the greenhouse effect. Remember to save energy!
EEA
205020 giga tons
As a result of the above mentioned findings, there seems to be a consensus among the leading developed countries that the temperature increase caused by global warming must not exceed 2° C (3.6° F). For example the European Union (EU) has committed itself to this threshold already in 2005. To reach this target the annual global CO2 emissions have to be reduced from about 28 Gigatons in 2006 to 20 Gigatons of CO2 by the year 2050 and to 10 Gigatons of CO2 by the year 2100 according to IPCC
Time for Change
3500 giga tonnes
The world’s coal reserves hold some 3500 gigatonnes of carbon, compared to the atmosphere currently holding around 800 gigatonnes (600 gigatonnes before the industrial revolution).
ClimateArk.org
150 bill. tonnes
Objection: According to the IPCC, 150 billion tonnes of carbon go into the atmosphere from natural processes every year. This is almost 30 times the amount of carbon humans emit. What difference can we make?
GristMill.org
1 giga ton
One gigaton is equivalent to 273 coal-fired electric generation plants with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).
Reason.com
2002330 million metric tons
A new NOAA study, appearing in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows how a prolonged drought in North America in 2002 cut the continent’s natural uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) in half, leaving more than 360 million tons (330 million metric tons) more of the heat-trapping greenhouse gas in Earth’s atmosphere. The amount not absorbed that year is equivalent to annual emissions from more than 200 million U.S. automobiles.
ESRL
300 tons
Recent measurements at Mammoth Mountain indicate that the total rate of CO2 gas emission is close to 300 tons per day.
USGS
500 milli grams
For websites that are not audited, MoveNeutral offsets, on average, 500 milligrams of carbon dioxide emissions per page view.
MoveNeutral.com
0.1 gram of carbon
Here are some numbers, taken from books on exercise physiology. Fat, protein, and sugar all contain about 0.1 gram of carbon per food calorie consumed. So if you digest 2,000 calories of food (a typical daily diet for adults) then you take in about 200 grams of carbon. At rest, each breath exhales about 0.5 liter of air containing about 1 percent carbon, for about five milligrams per breath. After a day at 12 breaths per minute, you get rid of about 120 grams of carbon. Thats less than you ate, so youll gain weight.
Technology Review