Carbon facts

Question 1

What is a petagram (Pg)?

Answer 1

One petagram, also known as a gigatonne (Gt) is equal to a trillion kilograms or 1 billion tonnes

Question 2

How long does it take carbon to enter and leave rocks and sediments in the geological cycle?

Answer 2

100,000 years

Question 3

How old are some of the fossil fuels we use today?

Answer 3

Up to 300 million years old

Question 4

How many tonnes of carbon are stored in the UK’s fossil fuels?

Answer 4

143 billion tonnes

Question 5

How long does it take for carbon to move between rocks, soil, ocean and the atmosphere?

Answer 5

100-200 million years

Question 6

How much CO₂ was emitted each day by the Icelandic volcanic eruption in 2010?

Answer 6

150,000-300,000 tonnes

Question 7

What % did the Icelandic eruption contribute to the global emissions of GHGs in 2010?

Answer 7

0.3%

Question 8

How many active surface volcanoes are on the planet?

Answer 8

70

Question 9

How much energy does carbon provide worldwide?

Answer 9

30%

Question 10

How much CO₂ was released by degassing in 1992?

Answer 10

100 million tonnes

Question 11

How much carbon do volcanoes emit annually?

Answer 11

0.15-0.26 Gt (300 million tonnes)

Question 12

How much carbon do humans emit annually?

Answer 12

35 Gt

Question 13

In the oceans today, what % of carbon-containing rock is from shell-building (calcifying) organisms (corals) and plankton?

Answer 13

80%

Question 14

How much CO₂ does phytoplankton sequester each year to the deep ocean?

Answer 14

2 billion tonnes

Question 15

How many carbon compounds have been discovered?

Answer 15

10 million

Question 16

How much of carbon makes up the earth’s atmosphere? (%)

Answer 16

0.03%

Question 17

How much of the total active pool of carbon is stored in the ocean? (%)

Answer 17

95%

Question 18

How much larger is the ocean as a carbon store than the atmosphere?

Answer 18

50 times larger

Question 19

How much of the carbon in oceans is stored in undersea algae, plants and coral? (%)

Answer 19

93%, the remainder is in dissolved form

Question 20

What are UK current emissions of carbon dioxide?

Answer 20

530 million tonnes of CO₂

Question 21

What % of carbon dioxide makes up the Earth’s atmosphere?

Answer 21

0.04%

Question 22

What have CO₂ concentrations risen to and from over the past decade? (%)

Answer 22

From 25% to 39%

Question 23

How much CO₂ does each person generate a year?

Answer 23

2.3 tonnes of CO₂ a year

Question 24

How is a majority of carbon stored in the oceans?

Answer 24

Dissolved inorganic carbon

Question 25

How important is carbon in living organisms?

Answer 25

Second most abundant substance in living organisms beside water

Question 26

By the end of the century, how much is earth temperature expected to rise by?

Answer 26

4 degrees

Question 27

How much has atmospheric CO₂ increased by in the last 300 years? (%)

Answer 27

40%

Question 28

List reasons why human activity has affected the carbon cycle

Answer 28

Burning fossil fuels, deforestation and carbon sequestration

Question 29

A rise of 1.5 degrees will put what % of species at risk of extinction?

Answer 29

20-30%

Question 30

By 2080, shifting temperature may reduce bird habitats in N. America, which would affect how many species?

Answer 30

314

Question 31

How much global carbon is stored in soils?

Answer 31

20-30%

Question 32

Since 1850, how much carbon have soils lost due to cultivation and disturbance?

Answer 32

40-90 billion tonnes

Question 33

What % of global carbon emissions comes from cement production?

Answer 33

6%

Question 34

How much carbon do peatlands store?

Answer 34

550 Gt - twice as much as forest biomass combined

Question 35

Carbon remains in the atmosphere for how many years?

Answer 35

2000 years