I'm a fairly enviornmentally concious person and would like to know
what I am doing by opening a bottle of sparkling water or soda pop.  I
have found a Google answer that talks about the health effects of
carbonation in liquid, but I'm specifically interested in whether or
not the carbonation that we are letting out of our bottles/cans is a
signfigant addition to the global warming.  I doubt that the amount an
individual will drink in one year would equal a 30min car ride, but
the details count when dealing with the enviornment.

Am I totally off my rocker or is this something useful to consider?

I'm glad you found the info I posted to be useful! I posted it as a
comment rather than as an answer because I wasn't sure that it was the
sort of thing you were looking for.

I've reposted the information below, with a bit of additional material.

"The degree of carbonation varies for each soft drink formulation,
from 4g/l in fruit drinks to 9g/l in mixer drinks and 12g/l in soda
water."

British Soft Drinks: Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
http://www.britishsoftdrinks.com/htm/qa/AdditivesIngredients/gases/CO2.htm

"As a rough estimate, the burning of one gallon of gasoline produces
about 20 pounds of CO2.  Hence, if you drive 10,000 miles and your car
averages 25 miles per gallon of gasoline, it will liberate
approximately 8,000 pounds of CO2 to the atmosphere: (10,000 miles) *
(1 gallon of gas / 25 miles) * (20 pounds of CO2 / gallon of gas) =
8,000 pounds of CO2.  If your car travels at 50 miles per gallon of
gasoline, however, it would liberate only half as much CO2, or 4,000
pounds, in travelling 10,000 miles.

Also,as a rough estimate, a person exhales about 2.2 pounds of CO2 per
day; so over a year, a person would exhale approximately 800 pounds of
CO2: (2.2 pounds of CO2 / day) * (365 days) = 803 pounds of CO2."

Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change
http://www.co2science.org/subject/questions/1999/cars.htm

One pound is about 453.6 grams; 2.2 pounds is 997.9 grams. This is the
approximate amount of CO2 exhaled by a person each day. 20 pounds is
9072 grams. This is the approximate amount of CO2 produced by an
automobile burning one gallon of gasoline.

So it would take approximately 83 liters of carbonated soda water to
equal the amount of carbon dioxide that a human exhales in a single
day. And it would take a whopping 756 liters of carbonated soda water
to equal the amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the
atmosphere by a car burning a gallon of gasoline.

This was an interesting question to research; I confess that I'd never
sat down to consider soft drinks as sources of greenhouse gases. Given
these figures, I think you'll agree that fizzy soda isn't a major
environmental issue. The disposal of the empty cans and bottles is
another matter, of course.

My Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "how much carbon dioxide" OR "how much co2"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22how+much+carbon+dioxide%22+OR+%22how+much+co2%22
 
Google Web Search: "carbon dioxide" OR co2 soda OR drink
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22carbon+dioxide%22+OR+co2+soda+OR+drink

I hope this helps. If anything is unclear or incomplete, please
request clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before
you rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

Are you aware that you contribute carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
every time you exhale?

"The degree of carbonation varies for each soft drink formulation,
from 4g/l in fruit drinks to 9g/l in mixer drinks and 12g/l in soda
water."

http://www.britishsoftdrinks.com/htm/qa/AdditivesIngredients/gases/CO2.htm

"as a rough estimate, a person exhales about 2.2 pounds of CO2 per
day; so over a year, a person would exhale approximately 800 pounds of
CO2: (2.2 pounds of CO2 / day) * (365 days) = 803 pounds of CO2."

One pound is about 453.6 grams; 2.2 pounds is 997.9 grams. 

So it would take approximately 83 liters of carbonated soda water to
equal the amount of carbon dioxide that a human exhales in a single
day.

I forgot to post the link for the quote that begins "as a rough estimate...":

http://www.co2science.org/subject/questions/1999/cars.htm

Yea, I figured that humans exhaled CO2...I was just curious what the
underlying amounts were for comparison on the carbonation.  (not
something you find on your daily news report)

Thanks much pinkfreud!!  (Why didn't you just answer it and get the
money?  You've fufilled the question...)
:)

Rich

rjeong-ga and pinkfreud: Although it is true, as Pink notes, that each
person emits about one kilo of CO2 per day in exhaling, that is not an
additional contribution to total CO2, because the food we, and all
animals eat, would have decomposed into exactly an equal amount of
CO2, if we or they did not exist. It is a cycle. Likewise (sorry, tree
huggers) vegetation does indeed absorb CO2 and emit the ever popular
oxygen, BUT when the tree dies and topples over, upon decomposing, all
the carbon it absorbed is released back into the atmosphere as guess
what, CO2. Again, a cycle rather than a carbon sink. In the
Carboniferous Era, vegetation was smothered and the carbon was
trapped, becoming coal, which is a carbon sink. When we burn coal or
any fossil fuel, the trapped carbon is released as CO2, which indeed
results in an increase of atmospheric CO2. Do not forget the laws of
conservation of matter and energy. Matter cannot be created or
destroyed by chemical processes. The carbon in vegetation and food
will always find its way back into the atmosphere and be recaptured by
plants in a continuous cycle, net result zero increase or decrease.
 There is presently no practical way of creating a carbon sink without
using energy. Nuclear power ( I know everyone is very fond of it) is
the only SERIOUS source of clean power, except hydroelectric in
certain fortunate areas. Forget wind and solar, which are miniscule
factors at present consumption rates.
   Now that I have that off my chest, one last remark: What gas
contributes as much as 98% of global warming? Give up? Answer: Water
vapor.

That's right.  You don't have to know how much CO2 is in a can of
coke, because however much it is, it's already part of the fast carbon
cycle.  The problem is moving carbon from the slow carbon cycle
(fossil fuels) into the fast carbon cycle (atmospheric, oceanic,
biological).  If you heat your house with oil, you are contributing to
the greenhouse effect, but if you use firewood, you are not.  Yes,
burning wood releases CO2, but that carbon came out of the atmosphere
when the tree grew, and if you didn't burn it, it would go back in the
atmosphere anyway when the wood rotted.  The cycle time might be 100
years.  When you burn coal/oil/gas you are releasing carbon that has
been out of atmospheric circulation for millions of years.