What portion of greenhouse gases come from human activity? Of that portion, how much from open fires?

Question

Trying to find out what portion of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere come from human activity, as opposed to natural processes (e.g., volcanoes, forest fires, etc).

Now, considering only those greenhouse gases caused by human activity -- what portion of these greenhouse gases are caused by open fires (e.g., campfires, charcoal grilling, etc)

Answer 1

Humans have an insignificant effect? Just what do you think happens to the 18 trillion tons of petroleum, coal, and natural gas used in one year go? That's right, they go into the air and mostly as carbon dioxide. This happens year after year. New sources of carbon dioxide that were buried in the ground but now liberated into the atmosphere. Add over 100 years since the industrial revolution started and it adds up to much more than one major volcanic eruption per century.

Here is a more simple example of the effect of man vs nature. During and after a major forrest fire, the air quality is very low. The air smells really bad but there's not much you can do about it so no one complains too loudly. In a couple of days it clears up and by the end of next week, everyone has forgotten about it. When you live next to a coal burning power plant or any major air pollution source, it may be not as bad as that forrest fire, but you have to live with it every day. People might be able to limit their outdoor exposure for couple of days, but they can't do that every day which is what human activity produces on a daily basis. You have to start wondering if breathing this unhealthy air will do long-term harm even though the short-term isn't noticably bad. Greenhouse gas is the same problem. It's long term and not about heat waves or large hurrican events. It's about the local climates on an every day level. For people near the equator, atmospheric mixing makes the temperature extreme effect less noticable, but for those living near the poles, it's undeniablely noticable.

The amount of greenhouse gases from open fires is comparitivley small. I don't have the data very handy but it's not totally insignificant if you look that the constantly monitored data for other open fire's other pollutant, particulate matter or soot. Even in an urban setting, open fires and fireplaces have contributed to 30% of the soot in the air during winter months.

Answer 2

There is a diagram at http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/ggccebro/chapter1.html
Fig 2 of the carbon cycle and other information as CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas. You can work out the percentage you want yourself. There must be some sort of pie chart somewhere about the effect of various types of human activity from which you might be able to make an educated guess on the effect of open fires (quite small I imagine except perhaps if you want to include forest burn offs in clearing Amazon forest. Unfortunately I can't lay my hands on it.

Answer 3

BY FAR, volcanoes are the greatest source of greenhouse gases. Nothing caused by humans even comes close. The whole debate begins with the FALSE premise that HUMANS are the major cause of greenhouse gases. Don't get sucked into this stupid conjecture about humans being the cause of global warming.

Answer 4

I don't think there is enough data to answer this question with any degree of certainty. There exists a dynamic equilibria of carbon dioxide concentrations that may be controlled and buffered by various natural processes and it is poorly understood. For example oolitic limestone is deposited in warm water such as at Bermuda because calcite, a carbonate, is less soluable in warm water and presumably the deposition would increase with increased CO2 though some might argue the CO2 would increase acidity and thus slow down the deposition of limestone in warm water. Also the infiltration of methane has been underestimated in my opinion. The methane is converted to carbon dioxide within a few years. I think there are just too many poorly understood natural factors to answer this question conclusively. You could calculate how much carbon dioxide humans produced but you have to remember that much of that CO2 we produced is used by plants in respiration, dissolved in the ocean, etc and it is difficult to know how high the CO2 would be without human influence in my opinion.

Answer 5

WELL I CANT ANSWER UR QUESTION DIRECTLY, BUT HUMANS ONLY PUT OUT 3% OF THE EARTHS GREEN HOUSE GASES A YEAR IN ALL R ACTIVITIES SUCH AS FLYING , DRIVING, AND SO ON WHILE THE EARTH PUTS OUT 97% OF THESE GASES INTO THE ATMOSPHERE NATURALLY

Answer 6

for me green house gas come more from driving is more then forest fire happened accidental only and pollution emission rate from technology is higher

Answer 7

read my blog re CO2. too big for here.