Is carbon dioxide the same air pollutant as car exhaust or industrial emissions? Research on this topic is controversial. There are many articles about the harm of CO2 (example one, example two). There is less research showing that carbon dioxide is practically harmless, but there are some (example). If you are interested in this topic, write in the comments. In the future, we can make a detailed literature review on the impact of CO2 on human health.
Our opinion is that carbon dioxide definitely affects a person's well-being (lethargy, fatigue, drowsiness). Think about how you feel in a stuffy office or apartment with closed windows. The average impact of CO2 on a person looks like this:
How to measure the amount of CO2 in the air?
The level of carbon dioxide in the air is measured in ppm: 1 ppm = 0.0001%, that is, one ppm. For Russia, 1400 ppm of carbon dioxide in the air is already an unacceptable amount (according to GOST 30494-2011). In America, the ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers) general standards state that headache complaints start at 2000 ppm.On average, the following picture is obtained in a hospital:
- 300 ppm - the norm outdoors in nature
- 500 ppm is the norm on the street in a modern city
- 700-1500 ppm is the norm indoors, and closer to 1500 ppm complaints of stuffiness, headache, lethargy, etc. begin.
That's it, we finish with the introduction. We proceed directly to the measurement. The floor is given to Mikhail Amelkin.
Transport
The trip began with an airplane. Flight Novosibirsk-Moscow, about 4 hours. The plane is full, Airbus A316. During the entire flight, the concentration of CO2 is about 2000 ppm! Add to this too high temperature on board (about 28 ° C) and low pressure (786 hPa versus 1007 hPa on the ground), and you will understand why we are so "sausage" after flights. For comparison, at the airport of arrival about 700 ppm, that is, the norm. On the way back, I flew in a half-empty plane and the situation was much better - the entire flight was up to 1000 ppm, which is acceptable.
Everything is much better in the subway. At the station itself, 600 ppm underground. In old, "leaky" cars about 700 ppm. In the new subway cars, where air conditioners circulate air in a circle, it is already worse - with an incomplete load of 1200 ppm. More than 2000 ppm should be expected in a packed carriage. But here it should be borne in mind that usually we spend little time in such cars, 10-20 minutes, so this is not very critical.
Street
I measured it right on Red Square. The level is about 450 ppm. This is higher than outside the city, which is most likely due to the abundance of transport, boiler houses and industry, which actively emit CO2 into the air, creating a "bubble" of carbon dioxide over the city. But that's okay. Bye.
Home and hotel
I was lucky to have less than 600 ppm CO2 concentration in my room all night. Fine! I didn’t sleep in a stuffy place. This is because I asked for a room with a window to the courtyard and was able to keep the window on micro-ventilation without waking up from the noise of cars. But there is no ventilation in the room, so the payment for fresh air is also not small - Moscow smog. If there were a ventilator with professional filters, it would be for five!
I must say that measurements in apartments with closed windows often show very poor results, a couple of people in a room can easily "breathe" 2000 ppm in 40-60 minutes. And the windows are usually closed so that there are no drafts and noise from the street. The conclusion is the same as in the case of the hotel - ventilation must have at home. At the same time, it is easier and cheaper to put compact ones than to bother with full ventilation.
Restaurants and cinemas
Here the picture is very different, but one thing is obvious (someone will say that this is clear even without instruments) - our restaurateurs love to save on the fan! For example, I had a business meeting at the Daily Bread coffee shop on Nikolskaya. The place is good, but the problem with the air is 2000 ppm! In such an atmosphere, it is very difficult to think and solve business issues. In "Chaikhona No. 1" on Pushkinskaya it was a little better, up to 1500 ppm.
But there are also good places: in Starbucks on Revolution Square and in Five Stars on Paveletskaya 700 ppm and 800 ppm, respectively. But in the cinema hall of this wonderful cinema there was no ice - the whole session was up to 1500 ppm. At the same time, the administration did not skimp on air conditioners - it was cool in the halls and this “brightened up” the situation. But air condos do not replace ventilation! Temperature - temperature, and oxygen - oxygen, must be both.
So far, this is all the information about Moscow. I undertake to make a sightseeing trip in Novosibirsk. What can be said about the bottom line?
conclusions
According to the data obtained, it is possible to state unequivocally the low quality of air in transport, especially when there are many passengers. A couple of tips for what to do on a stuffy plane.- Use airflow, it is in every plane on the ceiling or "in the back of the seat in front". From there, the air also comes with an excess of CO2 (checked), but at least it inflates the "bubble" of carbon dioxide that you "breathed" around you.
- If it's hot in the cabin, take your clothes off. Let it be a little cool. The lower the body temperature, the better the blood is saturated with oxygen and carbon dioxide is removed.
- Keep your activity to a minimum. Better to sleep or "meditate." Try not to get nervous, not to think of triple integrals. Remember, the brain consumes about 20% of all oxygen in the blood!
- If you smoke, it is best not to smoke a few hours before the flight. This will cleanse the blood of carbon monoxide and improve the supply of oxygen to the brain. Better to use nicotine gum / tablets / patches.
- After arrival, spend an hour outside, breathe, do breathing exercises, normalize blood biochemistry. Let your brain recover!
This time, it was not possible to “hunt” for CO2 in schools, kindergartens and offices, but there is reason to believe that excessive concentrations of carbon dioxide are regularly observed there. Let me spoil a little: we have already taken measurements of CO2 in the classroom of one of the Novosibirsk schools - more than 2000 ppm! And children there must study and work with their heads. But how to demand concentration and academic performance from a child, when the head does not cook just physiologically?
Tion's note: Coming soon about our mini-study at school.
In short, I also want to choose places of work and leisure based on air quality. I believe that this will significantly improve the "average temperature in the ward" - the well-being of me and my family.
Image copyright AFP
The average level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of our planet in 2015 for the first time during observations reached a critical point of 400 parts per million, the World Meteorological Organization said.
The critical level of carbon dioxide was recorded by an air monitoring station located in Hawaii.
According to experts, the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will not fall below 400 parts per million throughout 2016, and possibly in the coming decades.
What does this mean for you and me?
Host of the "Fifth Floor" program AlexanderBaranov discusses the topic with the Director of the Climate and Energy Program of the World Wildlife Fund AlexeatKokorinth and a senior researcher at the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences EvgenieatZinovievth.
AlexanderBAranov:400 parts per million for an ordinary person who does not understand climate issues, but learned arithmetic at school, is very little. As little as 200, 100 or 500. Especially when it comes to colorless and odorless gas. Why were the scientists suddenly so alarmed?
Aleksey Kokorin: CO2 is one of the greenhouse gases, second only to water vapor, and the main gas that is influenced by humans in the atmosphere.
And the fact that a person does not influence the water vapor content does not greatly facilitate the matter, because the influence on the CO2 content is great, and isotope analysis proved that this CO2 is from fuel combustion. It's a lot.
The number is very small, but it is 30% more than 50-60 years ago. And before that, the level was constant for a long time, there are data from direct measurements.
A.B.: Scientists now agree that CO2 affects climate change and not vice versa? Some time ago, some scientists said that the rise in carbon dioxide emissions was influenced by the warming of the ocean. And humans, compared to the ocean, emit much less CO2 into the atmosphere. What is the current consensus on this?
A.K.: The consensus is almost complete. I mentioned isotope analysis because in the past, and this has also been proven, first the temperature changed, and then the CO2 concentration.
This was during the transition period between ice ages and on other occasions. The correlation was in the following sequence. Here the correlation goes in a different sequence. But most importantly, there is evidence of isotopic analysis. There is a consensus here.
EvgeniusZinoviev: I am not a climatologist, I am a paleontologist. At our institute, in the north, in the Arctic, we observe an increase in both the CO2 content, and this is shown by our colleagues dendrochronologists, and the accompanying changes are the advance of the forest border. We are monitoring the landscapes of the northern part of the West Siberian Plain and the Polar and Subpolar Urals, and over the past forty years the northern border of the forest has been shifting to the north.
It does not yet reach the boundaries that were in the climatic optimum of the Holocene, when the woody vegetation reached the middle Yamal, but the process is going in that direction and is indirectly associated with climate warming. Woody plants gradually occupy territories from which they once retreated.
The warming that we are now seeing is not the most significant, now it is not the warmest climate. I can compare with the recent geological past - the last 130-140 thousand years. This period is called the Mikulinsky interglacial, and then plants and heat-loving animals moved much further north than now.
In our time, according to objective data, such levels have not yet been reached. But that warming was very short-lived, only about 5 thousand years. Then it was replaced by a cooling, then warming again, and then a long cold period, the Zyryan glaciation, which was also divided into warmer and colder epochs, began. Then the Scandinavian ice sheet began to form.
A.B.: That isvAre you talking about a cold snap in the Medieval period?
E.Z.: You are talking about historical times, and I mean earlier borders. This is the late Pleistocene.
A.B.: And what conclusions should we, non-specialists, draw from this? Opponents of the theory of human-induced global warming say that we are simply in a certain cycle and that various fluctuations in CO2 concentration are associated with this.
Carbon dioxide is food for plants. In the process of photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide, release oxygen into the atmosphere, and the higher the carbon dioxide content, the more actively the plants begin to consume it and the faster they grow.
E.Z.: The development of woody vegetation is not observed, on the contrary. In North America and southern Europe, forests are on fire, forest vegetation is degrading, aridization and drying of the climate are taking place. The lungs of the planet are shrinking.
A.B.: Why is this happening? In theory, they should expand?
E.Z.: Climate is a multi-vector system; there may be different factors that we cannot always take into account. There is a point of view that glaciers will begin to melt, which is associated with climate warming, and this is happening.
The Greenland ice sheet is also degrading, and in the Arctic, the large amount of fresh water released can change the direction of the Gulf Stream. Then this stove for Europe will stop heating the north of Europe, and the formation of glaciers will begin there again. It will be very bad.
A sharp warming can give rise to a sharp cooling. The ice cap accumulates water, and the climate begins to dry out. Solid forests disappear, sparse forests are formed. The climate becomes dry, cold, continental, and it becomes so not only in Siberia, but also in Europe.
Everything is very complex and interconnected. I would not oversimplify this, it is necessary to take into account the modern factor - the increase in CO2 emissions associated with industrial human activities, with the presence of a large number of industries, machines, and so on - you cannot argue with that. Especially in large metropolitan areas where large industries are concentrated.
But another question is what consequences this will have. Humanity is accustomed to living in certain comfortable conditions. If the increase or decrease in the level of the world ocean begins, then catastrophes will begin. They can be provoked by anthropogenic impact. Humanity is not so small as not to influence the natural environment. It has become a geological factor, not just a biological one, it changes more fundamental things in the biosphere, in the earth's crust.
A.B.: Let's say humanity can reduce CO2 emissions. But this is just one of the factors, and not the biggest. Can this change something, lead to some kind of dramatic improvement in the situation?
A.K.: It is very important, from the point of view of the physics of the atmosphere and the ocean, to understand what is happening. Two processes take place: this is the process of natural climate variability - the sun, most clearly, complex periodic processes in the ocean, Atlantic, Pacific.
There are also more studied things - heat flows from the atmosphere to the ocean and back, which are cyclical. These cyclical processes are superimposed on a constant impact, which is linear in nature.
Over the 21st century, temperatures are expected to rise by two degrees at best, but in reality - by three or three and a half. And at the same time, cooling and warming will occur cyclically, and warming - much faster. And it is not at all obvious that the increase in the number of hazardous hydrological phenomena will decrease with decreasing temperature.
A.B.: It is very difficult to understand for a person who does not deal with this problem and mainly watches popular science programs, where these issues are primitivized, simplified, but simple arguments act on the mind of an ordinary person who looks at it from the outside.
When he is given a graph of the temperature change inXXcentury and they say: look, while man did not particularly affect the atmosphere, the temperature rose, and when he began to influence, when industrialization was more powerful after 1940 until 1970, when the situation should have worsened, we observed a cooling.
On the basis of such graphs, people say that a person does not really influence, there are some more powerful factors that are beyond our control. Therefore, talk about the role of humans in global warming is a myth behind those who benefit from it.
E.Z.: The cumulative effect starts to work, the human impact is increasing. At some stage, it may not appear, but then, as the concentration of CO2 and greenhouse gases increases, sooner or later it manifests itself practically throughout the entire globe. Both in developed areas and in the north, in the Arctic.
The anthropogenic factor is superimposed on the astronomical factors associated with the orbit of the Earth's motion, the cyclicity is strongly manifested, and so on. And when everything is superimposed on each other, completely unpredictable events can occur.
And the anthropogenic impact will continue to increase, even if restrictions on production are introduced and so on. A lot of cars are produced that pollute the atmosphere very much. And other factors. They won't go anywhere.
And herbaceous and woody vegetation does not increase, but, on the contrary, degradation of the forest cover occurs.
A.B.: But we also saw reports of a different kind, that in Brazil suddenly the Amazon forests began to grow.
E.Z.: It is, but you look what is going on in America? Southwest California? There are massive forest fires. It takes time for the forest to recover after a fire. After a fire, several years pass before the forest begins to grow. And where it's dry, it just stops growing. The forest turns into a steppe, a desert, and so on.
A.B.: These are serious factors, but for the everyday consciousness it is difficult to combine this with his own activity. One can adhere to the theory that human activity is the last straw that can outweigh the ecological balance against the background of more serious factors. But when they say that there is such a factor as spots on the Sun, the activation of the Sun, which is a powerful source of energy, in comparison with which all our activities are a trifle, it is even impossible to compare.
Thatthe graphs show - when the Sun is active, the temperature rises, and when it is less active, it goes down, all this is correlated. Then they say that it all depends on what orbit the Earth is moving in. If the orbit is elliptical, it gets colder. And when all this is said to a person, he thinks: what, compared to such cosmic phenomena, are our unfortunate emissions into the atmosphere. How can you convince a person that by our actions we can upset this balance?
E.Z.: We need to somehow convince, because this really is not the last factor. For example, forests burn without a person - dry thunderstorms and so on. But human activity contributes to this. Everyone should start with himself. People should understand that a lot depends on them.
One person can say: I will do what I think is necessary, all the same, nothing depends on me. But there are millions of people, and if everyone thinks so, it won't be any better. The inertia of human thinking exists, unfortunately.
A.B.: How to convince a person that his car, in which he will drive the extrafivekilometers, also affects the climate, even against the background of the fact that the Earth is in an elliptical orbit, and not on some other?
A.K.: Russian climatologists, and not only Russian ones, wondered how to demonstrate this clearly. Probable reactions of the Sun in 15-20 years will most likely reduce the temperature on the globe by about 0.25 degrees. And the anthropogenic impact - at least two degrees. It was the same in the 30-40s of the twentieth century.
And another characteristic thing is this: both the stratosphere and the troposphere are warming up. That is, you have, as it were, a greenhouse film, and if it is heated above the film and under the film, it means that the light bulb has become warmer. And if it heats up under the film, and gets colder above the film, it means that the film has become thicker. You can try to explain it somehow so clearly.
A.B.: Do you admit the likelihood that we are really between two ice ages and something will happen and a cooling will begin on the Earth?
E.Z.: Your question suggests that my colleague and I speak poorly. Of course, we are between two ice ages, the one that ended about 300 thousand years ago, and the one that will begin in a few thousand years - maybe 20, maybe 100. My colleague as a climatologist knows better about this. But it will be absolutely certain. We are talking about a different time scale. On this scale, the human influence on global warming cannot be considered, it is hundreds of thousands of years.
A.B.: That is, we can not live up to this cold snap?
E.Z.: Unfortunately, we will definitely not live to see a global cold snap, even from our great-grandchildren no one will survive. Will there be periods of cold snap during the 21st century? Yes, they probably will. We live in an era of superposition of various variations, including solar ones, on the global trend.
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Researchers at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego reported USA Today that the content of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere has reached the highest level in the last 800 thousand years. It is now 410 ppm (parts per million). This means that in each cubic meter of air, carbon dioxide occupies a volume of 410 ml.
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
Carbon dioxide, or carbon dioxide, performs an important function in the atmosphere of our planet: it allows some of the radiation from the Sun to pass through, which heats the Earth. However, because the gas also absorbs the heat emitted by the planet, it contributes to the greenhouse effect. This is what is considered the main factor in global warming.
The constant increase in the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere began from the moment of the industrial revolution. Before that, the concentration never exceeded 300 ppm. In April of this year, the highest average mark for the last 800 thousand years was set. The first time the 410 ppm figure was recorded at an air quality monitoring station in Hawaii was in April 2017, but then it was more of an extraordinary case. In April 2018, this mark became the average for the entire month. The concentration of carbon dioxide has increased by 30% since the beginning of observations by researchers from the Scripps Institute.
Why concentration rises
Scientist Ralph Keeling of the Scripps Institute, the head of the CO2 research program, believes that the concentration of carbon dioxide continues to increase in the atmosphere due to the fact that we constantly burn fuel. When oil, gas and coal are refined, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are released into the atmosphere. The gases have caused the Earth's temperature to rise over the past century to levels that cannot be explained by natural variability. This is a well-known fact, but no one is taking measures to somehow rectify the situation.
In turn, the World Meteorological Organization said that the increase in greenhouse gases contributes to climate change and makes "the planet more dangerous and inhospitable for future generations." The issue needs to be addressed at the global level, and done as soon as possible.
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> Carbon dioxide concentration
Scientists have long suspected that the increased concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is directly related to global warming, but, as it turns out, carbon dioxide may be directly related to our health. Humans are the main source of carbon dioxide production in a room, since we breathe out 18 to 25 liters of this gas per hour. A high volume of carbon dioxide can be observed in all areas where people are: in school classrooms and college auditoriums, in meeting rooms and offices, in bedrooms and children's rooms.
The fact that we do not have enough oxygen in a stuffy room is a myth. Calculations show that, contrary to the existing stereotype, headache, weakness, and other symptoms in a person occur in a room not from a lack of oxygen, but from a high concentration of carbon dioxide.
Until recently, in European countries and the USA, the level of carbon dioxide in a room was measured only in order to check the quality of ventilation, and it was believed that CO2 is dangerous to humans only in high concentrations. Studies on the effect on the human body of carbon dioxide at a concentration of approximately 0.1% appeared quite recently.
Few people know that clean air outside the city contains about 0.04% carbon dioxide, and the closer the CO2 content in the room is to this figure, the better a person feels.
Are we aware of the impact of poor indoor air quality on our health and the health of our children? Do we understand how high indoor carbon dioxide affects our performance and student performance? Can we understand why we and our children are so tired at the end of the working day? Are we able to solve the problem of our morning fatigue and irritability, as well as bad night sleep?
A group of European scientists have conducted research on how the high (approximately 0.1-0.2%) level of carbon dioxide in classrooms affects the body of schoolchildren. Studies have shown that more than half of schoolchildren regularly experience the negative effects of high CO2 levels, and the consequence of this is that problems with the respiratory system, rhinitis and weak nasopharynx are observed in such children much more often than in other children.
As a result of studies carried out in Europe and the United States, it was revealed that an increased level of CO2 in the classroom leads to a decrease in the attention of schoolchildren, to a deterioration in academic performance, as well as to an increase in the number of absenteeism due to illness. This is especially true for children with asthma.
Such studies have never been carried out in Russia. However, as a result of a comprehensive survey of Moscow children and adolescents in 2004-2004. it turned out that among the diseases detected in young Muscovites, respiratory diseases predominate.
Recent studies by Indian scientists among the inhabitants of the city of Kolkata have shown that even in low concentrations, carbon dioxide is a potentially toxic gas. The scientists concluded that carbon dioxide is similar in toxicity to nitrogen dioxide, taking into account its effects on the cell membrane and biochemical changes in human blood, such as acidosis. Long-term acidosis, in turn, leads to diseases of the cardiovascular system, hypertension, fatigue and other adverse consequences for the human body.
Residents of a large metropolis are exposed to the negative effects of carbon dioxide from morning to evening. First, in crowded public transport and in their own cars, which sit in traffic jams for a long time. Then at work, where it is often stuffy and there is nothing to breathe.
It is very important to maintain good air quality in the bedroom. people spend a third of their lives there. In order to get a good sleep, quality air in the bedroom is much more important than the duration of sleep, and the level of carbon dioxide in bedrooms and children's rooms should be below 0.08%. High CO2 levels in these rooms can cause symptoms such as nasal congestion, throat and eye irritation, headaches and insomnia.
Finnish scientists have found a way to solve this problem based on the axiom that if in nature the level of carbon dioxide is 0.035-0.04%, then in rooms it should be close to this level. The device invented by them removes excess carbon dioxide from the indoor air. The principle is based on the absorption (absorption) of carbon dioxide by a special substance.
Very large. Carbon dioxide takes part in the formation of all living matter on the planet and, together with water and methane molecules, creates the so-called "greenhouse (greenhouse) effect".
Carbon dioxide value ( CO 2, dioxide or carbon dioxide) in the life of the biosphere consists primarily in maintaining the process of photosynthesis, which is carried out by plants.
Being greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide in the air affects the heat exchange of the planet with the surrounding space, effectively blocking re-radiated heat at a number of frequencies, and thus participates in the formation.
Recently, there has been an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air, which leads to.
Carbon (C) in the atmosphere is contained mainly in the form of carbon dioxide (CO 2) and in small amounts in the form of methane (CH 4), carbon monoxide and other hydrocarbons.
For gases of the atmosphere, the term "gas lifetime" is used. This is the time during which the gas is completely renewed, i.e. the time during which the same amount of gas enters the atmosphere as it contains. So, for carbon dioxide this time is 3-5 years, for methane - 10-14 years. CO is oxidized to CO 2 within a few months.
In the biosphere, the value of carbon is very high, since it is part of all living organisms. Within living beings, carbon is contained in a reduced form, and outside the biosphere - in an oxidized one. Thus, a life cycle chemical exchange is formed: СО 2 ↔ living matter.
Sources of carbon in the atmosphere.
The source of primary carbon dioxide is, during the eruption of which a huge amount of gases are released into the atmosphere. Part of this carbon dioxide arises from the thermal decomposition of ancient limestones in various zones of metamorphism.
Carbon also enters the atmosphere in the form of methane as a result of the anaerobic decomposition of organic residues. Methane under the influence of oxygen is rapidly oxidized to carbon dioxide. The main suppliers of methane to the atmosphere are tropical forests and.
In turn, carbon dioxide of the atmosphere is a source of carbon for other geospheres - the biosphere, etc.
CO 2 migration in the biosphere.
CO 2 migration proceeds in two ways:
In the first method, CO 2 is absorbed from the atmosphere during photosynthesis and participates in the formation of organic substances with subsequent burial in the form of minerals: peat, oil, oil shale.
In the second method, carbon participates in the creation of carbonates in the hydrosphere. CO 2 goes into H 2 CO 3, HCO 3 -1, CO 3 -2. Then, with the participation of calcium (less often magnesium and iron), the precipitation of carbonates occurs in a biogenic and abiogenic way. Thick strata of limestone and dolomite appear. According to A.B. Ronov, the ratio of organic carbon (Corg) to carbonate carbon (Ccarb) in the history of the biosphere was 1: 4.
How is the geochemical circulation of carbon in nature and how carbon dioxide returns to the atmosphere
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