How much CO2 am I saving?

Factual Questions
1

I telecommute one day per week.

Round trip is 205.3 miles.
Miles per gallon is 20.
Vehicle is a 1999 Jeep Cherokee with a 4.0 litre engine.

I went to a calculator I found online and entered 205.3 miles as my annual mileage. It said that puts 209 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. So I gave it 205.3 miles per week and devided the result by 52. Still 209 pounds.

How much CO2 am I really not putting into the atmosphere each day I don’t drive?

How does the calculator get 209 pounds of CO2 from 70 pounds of gas?

2

It’s because the C comes from the gas and the O2 comes from the air, though I haven’t checked that their calculation is correct.

3

:smack:

It’s still a surprising amount if the calculator is correct.

EDIT: On the other hand, the fuel/air ratio is like 15:1, so that’s a lot of O2.

4

Well, if gasoline weighs around 7 pounds per gallon and you get around 3*7 miles to the gallon and you produce 3 pounds of CO2 for each pound of gasoline, you ought to emit about a pound of CO2 per mile, right?

5

Here’s a thread where I asked a similar question. I think this was after I had seen “An Inconvenient Truth” and then was looking at an emissions calculator on Terrapass or some such site. I was surprised at the amount too.