Would you enjoy being a pedestrian would joggers

with giant sprays of something like mud coming off the tires? Would you enjoy being a pedestrian? Would
joggers switch to cross­country skiing?
To get total U.S. CO
2
production, you need to multiply again by about 3—we heat and air condition our
homes, etc., as well as driving our cars, and most of the heating and cooling comes from fossil fuels, too. So,
spread that inch of horse ploppies across your living­room carpet, and across every other living space in the
nation. Put differently, the average American generates 22 tons of CO
2
per year. (Compare this to a bit over
half a ton per person per year of solid waste put out in garbage cans to go to landfills.)
With about 5% of the world’s population, we are generating about25% of the world’s CO
2
. If you had an inch­
thick layer of horse ploppies each year on every square inch of paved road in America, you very clearly would
smell it everywhere—the volatile organic molecules wafting off the mess would quickly be blown around the
country and the world. We don’t smell the CO
2
, but it is everywhere, building up steadily in the atmosphere,
changing the climate… and we humans clearly are influential enough to do this.
So, for you alert readers playing along at home, how thick would the layer be if all the CO
2
released by U.S.
cars were converted to an equivalent weight of horse ploppies and spread uniformly across all the paved roads
in the U.S.?(you've already seen this answer several times, actually, so for those paying attention, consider this
your reward)
A) 1/1000 inch
B) 1/10 inch
C) 1 inch
D) 1/100 inch
Points Earned: 2.0/2.0
Correct Answer(s): C
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