Solar power 24 hours a day:

Originally posted by CalJust
The atomic weight of C is 14 and O is 16.
So 14 kg of C makes 46 kg of CO2.

In rough figures, therefore, 1 kg of coal makes 3 kg of CO2 (if the ash content is not too high)

1 kWh is equivalent to 3,6 MJ.

As a rule of thumb, depending on the grade of coal and the efficiency of the power station, if you say that 1 kWh of electricity results in approx 1 kg of CO2 you will not be far from wrong.

1 kwhr is 3.6 megajoules? 1000 watts for one second=1 kilojoule so 1000 times 3600 seconds, I see it now, 3,600,000 joules. ONE watt for one hour = 3,600 joules.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Of course all these figures are just used for their wow factor or scare factor. 1 ton or 100 tonnes just sound big and scary, when in reality most of us know nothing about how much that impacts the environment.

Not at all.

These figures are just a simple way to calculate your Carbon Footprint should you be inclined to do so (which it looks like you aren't, which is no big deal.)

Yes, unfortunately "most of us" know nothing about how it impacts on the environment. Which doesn't mean that we shouldn't try!

And at least "some of us" do. The models are getting better since the 1990s and the debate whether Climate Change is natural or man-made is getting far clearer.

The denialists are getting fewer, but not less vociferous.

Originally posted by CalJust
These figures are just a simple way to calculate your Carbon Footprint should you be inclined to do so (which it looks like you aren't, which is no big deal.)

I would be interested, but it would be practically impossible.

And at least "some of us" do.
Well then I would be interested in things like:
What is the approximate output in tones of:
The worlds total coal power stations.
The worlds total natural gas power stations.
The worlds total vehicle output (from gasoline).
Burning (forest fires/ grass fires etc)
Agriculture (loss of soil carbon, not fuel consumption).
Deforestation.

The denialists are getting fewer, but not less vociferous.
Well there are political reasons for that.

Originally posted by twhitehead
The worlds total coal power stations.
The worlds total natural gas power stations.
The worlds total vehicle output (from gasoline).

These figures are available. You could, for example, start at

http://iea.org/stats/coaldata.asp?COUNTRY_CODE=29


Burning (forest fires/ grass fires etc)
Agriculture (loss of soil carbon, not fuel consumption).
Deforestation.

A bit more tricky. But this site has a lot of data:
http://ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_and_data_figures_and_tables.shtml