Question

Anthropogenic activities released approximately 36 x 10⁹ tons of CO₂ in the atmosphere during 2018. About 55% of these CO₂ emissions were either dissolved in the ocean or taken up by plants and the rest stayed in the atmosphere. By how much did the CO₂ concentration (ppm) increase in the atmosphere during 2018, given that for each 7.7Gt of CO₂ increase in the atmosphere the concentration increases by 1ppm?

Answer 1

Given released CO2 in the year is

Since

And 55% of the CO2 get dissolved or taken by trees. Therefore remaining CO2 in atmosphere is

100-55=45%. Which is

Now it is given that for 7.7Gt concentration increases by 1ppm

Therefore concentration increase due to 16.2Gt of CO2 is

Therefore concentration of CO2 increased by 2.1ppm.