What is a Gigaton?

In 1990, the world emitted 18 gigatons of carbon dioxide. It is projected that by 2050, we will be emitting 40 gigatons.

Any significant proposal for starving off global environmental, economic, social, and political disruptions caused by climate change call for reductions in carbon dioxide. Some scientists have suggested we need to get below 10 gigatons of carbon dioxide.

So what is a gigaton? A really, really big number. One gigaton of emissions is like putting 142,857,142 African elephants into the atmosphere - - enough elephants to stretch from the earth to the moon and halfway back.

Source - - The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the Earth (2010) by Eric Pooley. This should be a must read for all engineers. An insightful view of the really messy, complex, and confusing process of how the forces of politics, economics, and environmentalism attempt to solve or don't solve a national and international problem. Not a pretty picture with very much encouragement.