One Gallon of Gasoline
I found this claim by David Archer rather incredible: If we add up the total amount of energy trapped by the CO2 from the gallon of gas over its atmospheric lifetime, we find that our gallon of gasoline ultimately traps one hundred billion (100,000,000,000) kilocalories of useless and unwanted greenhouse heat. The bad energy from burning that gallon ultimately outweighs the good energy by a factor of about 40 million. Archer, David (2008-10-06). The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing the Next 100,000 Years of Earth's Climate (Science Essentials) (p. 174). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition. Is it believable? Let's do the math, but let me start by saying that his statement "energy trapped by the CO2 from the gallon of gas [$1.59 at the pump for me yesterday, btw] over its atmospheric lifetime..." is a bit odd. CO2 doesn't really "trap" energy, it just sort of impedes its flow. So let me just assume that he means that the heat content of the ...