I had a good laugh, perhaps out of ignorance, when I read this story today about an Australian scientist saying cremation contributes to global warming, "Short said the cremation of the average male in Australia, during which the body is heated to 850 degrees Celsius (1,562 degrees Fahrenheit) for 90 minutes, produced more than 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of carbon dioxide."
Now when I was in school I learned that the human body is ~90% water which would make me, at 180 lbs, about 162 lbs of water or 18 lbs of solids. How does one get 110 lbs of CO2 from 18 lbs of solids? Just for clarification the article goes on to say, "And that doesn't include the carbon cost of fuel, or the cost of the emissions released during the production and burning of the wooden casket." So the 110 of CO2 is strictly from the cremated body.
I'm sure I produce much more than 110 lbs of CO2 per year just from breathing so perhaps we should do the planet a favor and all just die.
This lunacy has to stop!
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As a follow up to my own post Carbon has an atomic weight of 6, Oxygen has an atomic weight of 8. So for 6 lbs of C a molecule of CO2 has 16 lbs of O. So 18 lbs of C, assuming a 100% conversion to CO2, yields ~48 lbs of CO2.
I see that you have just recently begun blogging. Some very good ideas and very good writing, coming out of the starting gate!
Keep up the good work.
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