Humans collectively exhale over 2 billion metric tons CO2 annually
Here's something you might not expect: just by living and breathing, humans collectively release over 2 billion metric tons of CO2 each year.
This jump was mostly driven by population growth, and human metabolic CO2 production rose 74% between 1985 and 2015.
But don't worry, unlike pollution from cars or factories, the CO2 we exhale is part of nature's own carbon cycle, which gives scientists new ways to look at climate models.
Bath study: population drove metabolic CO2
The University of Bath study found that over 60% of this increase in metabolic CO2 came simply from having more people on Earth.
Researchers analyzed measurements from people across the human lifespan and combined them with worldwide population and body-weight data to calculate how human metabolic CO2 changed over time.
The big takeaway? Human breathing doesn't really drive global warming, but understanding these numbers helps sharpen strategies for fighting climate change.