What Causes Global Warming?

Did You Know?

For every pound of gasoline your car burns, about three pounds of CO₂ come out the tailpipe. So if your car gets 20 miles per gallon, you are emitting about a pound of CO₂ per mile.

(For every kilo of petrol your car burns, about three kilos of CO₂ come out the tailpipe. So if your car gets 8.5 km per liter, you are emitting about a quarter of a kilogram per kilometer.)

How can the amount of CO₂ that comes out be three times the amount of gas that goes in? It's because of the oxygen. Your car uses a lot of O₂ to burn that pound of gasoline, and some of that oxygen becomes part of the CO₂ emitted. You can review the math here.

So that trip to the store to buy a loaf of bread, bag of dog food, quart of milk or bottle of wine probably put a pound or more of CO₂ into the atmosphere. That is likely as much as all the CO₂ emitted by all the processes involved in growing, manufacturing and packaging that product, and transporting it to your local store.

That is what causes global warming.