Small theory

[danyal]

I think I thought of this in grade 7 or grade 8, I'm not really sure, but my college biology teacher found it pretty interesting. We were discussing about how if we exercise more, our lung capacity increases..

From this, I thought of something, if we all become extremely fat, wouldn't that help us reduce our carbon footprint? When we exercise a lot, as a result our lung capacity increase, which increases the amount of oxygen we take in, and in the final results, increases the amount of CO2 we take out. If the entire world was obese, wouldn't that reduce the amount of CO2 significantly? And thinking more about this, if we were to breathe half of what we do today, wouldn't that also reduce the amount of CO2 our bodies take out?

 

[AndroidVageta]

I dont think the amount of breathing done by those in shape and those that are not really differ THAT much if at all to make any kind of noticeable difference in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Cool theory, but I gotta go with no.

 

[canis]

I think I thought of this in grade 7 or grade 8, I'm not really sure, but my college biology teacher found it pretty interesting. We were discussing about how if we exercise more, our lung capacity increases..

From this, I thought of something, if we all become extremely fat, wouldn't that help us reduce our carbon footprint? When we exercise a lot, as a result our lung capacity increase, which increases the amount of oxygen we take in, and in the final results, increases the amount of CO2 we take out. If the entire world was obese, wouldn't that reduce the amount of CO2 significantly? And thinking more about this, if we were to breathe half of what we do today, wouldn't that also reduce the amount of CO2 our bodies take out?

Sad and strange idea.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Lung capacity != metabolic output.

And the problem isn't use within the carbon cycle -- as long as plants can grow just as fast as animals eat them, we are in balance. The problem is the use of fossil fuels. These are previously sequestered deposits of carbon that we are now spewing out into our atmosphere in the form of a greenhouse gas at MASSIVE rates. This is where the imbalance is, because nothing is sequestering that carbon back into the Earth.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Nope. If you were horrendously fit you'd use maybe slightly more oxygen and output maybe slightly more carbon dioxide. On the one hand, if you were super fit you'd have a bit more muscle, especially in the intercostals. However, if you were super fat, those fat cells need oxygen too...

And that's only if you were the same weight. Fat people tend to weigh more than really fit people (huge generalization), so that's even more fat tissue needing oxygen, and plus, you'd have to lug all that around, which equals more work which equals more oxygen in and more carbon dioxide out. And as for logistics of carrying around all those fat people...

But it still doesn't work like that, because the problem is not how much we output, but where we're taking it from to output it. As seraph said, we're not outputting carbon that would have been on the Earth's surface anyway. We're taking billions of moles of carbon bound as hydrocarbons and thiols in the crust of the earth, and putting it out as a gas. The hydrocarbons deep down don't cause a Greenhouse effect. The gas does.

So, in a sentence, your biology teacher probably should have known better.

 

[f4phantom2500]

also not to mention the additional growing and processing of food and the necessary transportation network to make everyone extremely fat. this would FAR outweigh any potential change in CO2 output levels caused by us breathing. interesting thought, though. just keep that mind set and consider more factors, you'll be able to come up with some really interesting ideas.

 

[danyal]

Haha, thanks for the responses . Like I said, it was back in grade 8 I thought of this, it seemed pretty cool, so thanks for clearing it up for me!

 

[KIAman]

Not only that but imagine the amount of greenhouse gases are released once you die and purification sets in.