Final answer:
To increase the atmospheric CO2 concentration by 1ppm, it is estimated that about 7.8 billion tons of CO2 is required, taking into account the mass of the atmosphere, the molar mass of CO2, and the fact that only half of emitted CO2 remains in the atmosphere.
Step-by-step explanation:
To estimate how many tons of CO2 are required to increase CO2 in the atmosphere by 1ppm, we can use the mass of the atmosphere and various conversion factors. The atmosphere has a mass of about 5×10¹¸ kg. Considering that we emit CO2 from burning oil and approximately half of this emitted CO2 stays in the atmosphere, we currently add about 0.8 ppmv (parts per million by volume) to the atmosphere each year from oil.
Based on the mass of the atmosphere and the differences between volume and mass concentration of CO2 due to its molar mass being 44 g/mol compared to the average air at 29 g/mol, we adjust the parts per million by mass (ppmm) by a factor of 44/29, or 1.52. Moreover, considering that only about half of the emitted CO2 stays in the atmosphere, we infer that to increase the CO2 concentration by 1 ppm, one would need to emit roughly twice as much. Hence, about 7.8 billion tons of CO2 would be required to increase the atmospheric CO2 concentration by 1ppm.