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I came up with these two sources in the net:

From Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations:

Carbon dioxide content in air is only 0.03%, but it is highly soluble in water unlike oxygen and one volume of CO2 dissolves in equal volume of water, the solubility being higher at low temperature

From European Environment Agency:

Carbon dioxide is a colourless, odourless gas, denser than air that occurs naturally in the earth's atmosphere. It is slightly soluble in water, forming carbonic acid.

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    $\begingroup$ It's highly soluble in comparison with O2. Barely at all in comparison with NH3. $\endgroup$
    – Mithoron
    Commented Oct 10 at 0:33
  • $\begingroup$ A mouse is pretty big when compared to a mosquito. $\endgroup$
    – Ivan Neretin
    Commented Oct 10 at 7:17
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    $\begingroup$ Why not to check the numerical value of its solubility, putting aside verbose evaluations? Those qualifiers are not standardized and only the authors of those texts know why they have chosen them. $\endgroup$
    – Poutnik
    Commented Oct 10 at 9:15
  • $\begingroup$ I had just a little lingual mistake here where I didn't pay attention to the comparison with oxygen. I don't think my post deserves downvotes just because of it. $\endgroup$
    – Walter Heisenberg White
    Commented Oct 10 at 10:40

3 Answers 3

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The solubility of a gas in a liquid is directly proportional to the partial pressure of that gas above the liquid (Henry's law), which means increasing pressure can increase the solubility of a gas. For example, solubility of oxygen $(\ce{O2})$ at STP is around $\pu{0.0043 g L-1}$ while that of nitrogen $(\ce{N2})$ is around $\pu{0.0019 g L-1}$. Carbon dioxide $(\ce{CO2})$, on the other hand, has slightly higher solubility compared to that of $\ce{N2}$ and $\ce{O2}$ due to its ability to react with water. Following graph shows the solubility of $\ce{CO2}$ in mole fraction at different temperatures (partial pressure of the gas is $\pu{101.325 kPa}$ or $\pu{1.0 atm}$) according to data from Colorado State University website, which provides with relevant references:

Solubility of CO2 1n 1 atm partial pressure

For comparison in mole fraction under $\pu{1.0 atm}$ partial pressure, solubility of $\ce{O2}$ at $\pu{298 K}$ is $0.00002293$ while that of $\ce{N2}$ is $0.00001183$ compared to $0.000615$ of $\ce{CO2}$.

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It depends on the context: compared to oxygen's solubility, it is highly soluble, whereas the absolute solubility is still low. One volume of gas per one volume of liquid is hundreds of times less particles of solute than solvent.

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In my opinion, it is not correct to talk about the solubility of carbon dioxide in water under normal conditions. All other gases in the earth's air dissolve in water subject to Dalton's empirical law. The concentration of oxygen in the air of Zelya is about 21% (by volume) of carbon dioxide about 0.03-0.04%, so in water the proportion should be preserved. In fact, in water under normal conditions, the ratio of oxygen to carbon dioxide can be 1:1, which is almost 500 times more than can be expected for carbon dioxide. For carbon dioxide, Dalton's law does not apply, because carbon dioxide does not dissolve, but chemically interacts with water, which is why there is such a strange relationship. Due to the violation of the law of dissolution of carbon dioxide in water, life exists on Earth. If this question is answered from the standpoint of Henry's law, my assumption may not be so obvious.

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