Everyone knows fossil fuels come from long-dead plants, but Jeffrey Dukes wanted real numbers: How much plant matter does it take to make a gallon of gasoline? Dukes, a biologist, ecologist, and dabbler in biogeochemistry at the University of Massachusetts, discovered that such statistics are hard to find. So he decided to figure them out for himself and was surprised by the answers.
A gallon of gas represents roughly 100 tons of plant matter, the amount that exists in 40 acres of wheat. Burning that gallon puts 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air. The annual consumption of gasoline in the United States, about 131 billion gallons of gas, is equivalent to 25 quadrillion pounds of prehistoric biomass and releases some 2.6 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide.
The numbers are even more sobering when you consider all the fossil fuels—coal, natural gas, and oil—that people consume. Since 1751, roughly the start of the Industrial Revolution, humans have burned the amount of fossil fuel that would have come from all the plants on Earth for 13,300 years. “We know that fossil-fuel use is not sustainable in the long run,” Dukes says. “This study will, I hope, encourage people to face up to the energy problem now.”
"""Kila mtu anajua mafuta ya makaa ya mawe yanatokana na mimea iliyokufa muda mrefu, lakini Jeffrey Dukes alitaka idadi halisi: ni kiasi gani cha mimea inahitajika kutengeneza galoni moja ya petroli?" Dukes, mwanabiolojia, mtaalamu wa mazingira, na mtaalamu wa biokemia katika Chuo Kikuu cha Massachusetts, aligundua kwamba ni vigumu kupata takwimu kama hizo. Kwa hiyo akaamua kuyajua yeye mwenyewe na akashangazwa na majibu. Galoni moja ya gesi inawakilisha takriban tani 100 za mimea, kiasi ambacho kiko katika ekari 40 za ngano. Kuungua kwa lita hiyo huweka pauni 20 za kaboni dioksidi hewani. Kwa mfano, matumizi ya kila mwaka ya mafuta nchini Marekani, karibu galoni bilioni 131 za gesi, ni sawa na pauni 25 za trilioni za biomass ya kabla ya historia na inatoa pauni 2.6 za trilioni za kaboni dioksidi. Idadi hiyo inatia wasiwasi hata zaidi unapofikiria mafuta yote ya makaa ya mawe - makaa ya mawe, gesi ya asili, na mafuta - ambayo watu hutumia. Tangu 1751 (karibu mwanzo wa Mapinduzi ya Viwanda), wanadamu wametumia kiasi cha mafuta ya makaa ya mawe ambayo yangetokana na mimea yote duniani kwa miaka 13,300. "Tunajua kwamba matumizi ya mafuta ya visukuku si endelevu kwa muda mrefu", Dukes anasema. <unk>Natumaini utafiti huu utawatia moyo watu kukabiliana na tatizo la nishati sasa.<unk>