CO2 from cement?

Posted by William M. Connolley on May 11, 2006
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The grauniad has an article in the IT section about “A cracking alternative to cement”. They claim that cement is 10% of anthro CO2 (or 5-10% lower down; although that includes asphalt, which for some reason counts as cement based. Odd) is from cement. That didn’t fit with my memories.

So I dig out the trusty IPCC report and find maximum in 1997 of 6.6 PgC/yr (0.2 PgC/yr of this was from cement production) which is about 3%. Of course, being a newspaper the grauniad (all together now…) doesn’t bother cite a source for its data, so its hard to check up. Maybe things have changed dramatically since 1997? But I doubt it.

Anybody lese got any values? Couldn’t find them in the AR4 :-(

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Comments

  1. #1 James Annan
    2006/05/11

    Just about the first google hit for CO2 emissions takes you to this data which suggests about 3.5% (but rising rather rapidly over recent decades)

  3. #3 Adam
    2006/05/12

    They do have an email address at the bottom of the article you could try?

  4. #4 Jon
    2006/05/12

    Strange argument.

    The aircraft industry only produces 4% of total CO2. Is that in Africa, India, China, Russia, Europe or the US?

    The construction industry causes 5-10%. Does that include “road haulage” which would come under exhaust CO2 emissions.

    I suppose next The guardian will tell us there are more white van drivers & cowboy builders (1 million) than there are car users (30 million in UK alone).

    If only the worst pollution at Stansted came from construction and not from the jetfuel exhausted by 3 flights a minute (one every 20 seconds0 during rush hour.

    Yes, we need new construction materials, but first we need to consign combustion engines into the history sin bin.

    .

  5. #5 Adam
    2006/05/12

    They cite the SDC in the aviation percentage who say it accounts for 5.5% of Uk CO2 and elsewhere say that other effects of aviation (NOx, etc.) actually make the total effect of aviation 2.7 times that of the CO2 alone (scroll down), so the 4% figure seems even more strange.

    Of course, fly less and drive less and less cement is required anyway.

  6. #6 Jon
    2006/05/13

    From The Post Normal Times: “But even when impacts have distant causes, there is much that science can tell us. If you don’t do the science, or don’t ask questions in a useful way, you will never find out. And sometimes judgments and decisions have to be made with incomplete information.”

    So nothing to do with Cement, but:

    Is the Holy Grail a chalice (from the last supper)?

    Is the Sang Real a Royal Blood Line from the line of David, from whom Christ is descended, the bloodline of Jesus & Mary Magdalene?

    Is the Holy Grail a mythical quest for gnosis or ‘knowledge of the Divine’?

    Is the Holy Grail the search completed by the Templars?

    What knowledge did the Templars find (apart from vast wealth)?

    Could the Truth be that the Holy Grail & the Sang Real (or Da vinci Code) is really about belief in the Resurrection – and who it is that has this “power” as in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

    Are Christians or rather “can” only Christians be resurrected. Can Pagans and other religions be resurrected or reincarnated. Can Warriors, Templars, Crusaders, knights, and even Muslim Warriors expect resurrection. Can all who die (and murder/kill) in the “name of God” in defence of their loved ones: family, tribe or peoples expect resurrection.

    Of course the premise requires a metaphysical (beyond science) belief in resurrection and/or reincarnation, before we enter into or “contemplate” any scientific search itself, per se.

    Please note we are talking of Resurrection and/or reincarnation, as in having conscious knowledge of past life, as one has memory of one’s life 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, 50 years ago, and more …

    with no memory loss, senility, dementia or Alzheimer’s.

    And there is more …

    .