Dear Tom,
Since increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is causing global warming, then why the continued manufacture of carbonated soft drinks?
— Thomas Schillaci, Bartlett
Dear Thomas,
Assume the average American drinks 50 gallons of carbonated soft drinks each year and the U.S. population is 328 million people. That means about 16.4 billion gallons of soda is consumed every year in the United States. One gallon equals 3.78 liters, so U.S. annual consumption of carbonated soft drinks is 63 billion liters. Total annual carbon dioxide emissions is about 27.4 billion metric tons. Thus, 0.001 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions in the United States is contributed by carbonated soft drinks. These numbers are only rough approximations, but the inescapable conclusion is that carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from soft drinks is inconsequential.
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