Every discussion surrounding combatting climate change involves the inevitable inclusion of curbing emissions such as carbon dioxide. If the U.S. does decide to curb or eliminate carbon dioxide emissions across the entire U.S., the total amount of the problem needs to be understood. The magnitude of the total emissions by the U.S. on an annual basis.
According to an article on Bloomberg, the amount of Carbon Dioxide needed to be taken out of the atmosphere is quite enormous:
As much as 1.85 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide would need to be removed from the air annually to help the U.S. zero out emissions by midcentury, according to a report earlier this month by the Rhodium Group, an economic policy research provider.
When I read the statistic of 1.85 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, my head almost exploded. Wow! How many Goodyear blimps could be filled with 1.85 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide? That question needs to be solved. In the paragraphs below, I will walk the reader through the solution using dimensional analysis.
How Much Gas Per Goodyear Blimp?
If the number of Goodyear blimps is the metric for our analysis, then the volume per blimp must be determined. In keeping with our methodology on this site, the pathway toward finding the volume occupied per blimp would be to ask Google: How much volume is contained in a Goodyear blimp? The answer is shown below:
If the first link is chosen which directs us to the Goodyear blimp site, a data table of specifications is located at the bottom. The volume is listed as 297,527 cubic feet of gas per blimp. A conversion factor is shown as follows for the calculation:
The amount of 297,527 cubic feet is shown above in scientific notation (science shorthand).
What is remaining to complete the analysis?
At this point, a unit check is needed to ensure that all values are expressed in the same units. Otherwise, the calculation cannot be carried out by simple division.
The total volume of gas is expressed in units of 'tons,' whereas the amount of gas per blimp is expressed in units of 'cubic feet.' Which means, either convert the volume of gas per blimp to units of 'tons' or convert the total amount of carbon dioxide (expressed in units of 'tons') to cubic feet.
But wait...One unit is a weight while the other is a volume?
How about converting the total volume of gas (carbon dioxide) from 'tons' to 'cubic feet'? Ask Google the following question: How much does a cubic foot of carbon dioxide weigh?
The answer above gives more information than just the weight of a cubic foot of carbon dioxide gas. In fact, the weight of a ton of carbon dioxide gas is provided. The conversion of units from ton to cubic feet is shown below:
The remaining step is to divide the total amount of gas by the amount of gas per blimp as shown in the next and final step:
Our analysis yields the answer for the initial question of how many Goodyear blimps would be filled with 1.85 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. The total annual output of the U.S. of carbon dioxide emissions. To remove the total annual output, the equivalent of 109,000,000 Goodyear blimps would have to be filled. That is an enormous amount of gas. Although, carrying out analyses such as the one above gives us an idea of the magnitude of the problem.
Now that you have been shown the methodology for solving the problem, you can determine the number of Mercedez Benz Superdome stadiums required to hold the equivalent amount of gas. Leave the answer in the comment below.
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Reader Question: How far would 291 billion Goodyear Blimps reach end to end?
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