Yes, constantly increasing energy consumption by a fixed percentage per year projects out to physical absurdities like boiling the oceans or needing to expand c

Yes, constantly increasing energy consumption by a fixed percentage per year projects out to physical absurdities like boiling the oceans or needing to expand colonies throughout the universe faster-than-light. But Tom Murphy is employing a straw-economist ("Note: because I have a better retention of my own thoughts than those of my conversational companion, this recreation is lopsided to represent my own points/words.") to make a point. I thought that was one of his weaker blog entries and I was a regular reader of his blog. The Earth radiates a finite but not fixed amount of energy into space every year. Radiated power goes up with the 4th power of absolute temperature (modulated by greenhouse effect). The effects of increasing the greenhouse effect from fossil combustion are much greater than the direct waste heat from fossil combustion, because the greenhouse effect slightly amplifies the warming effects of the ~10^17 watts of sunlight reaching Earth's surface. Fossil combustion directly accounts for ~10^13 watts of terrestrial heating. Note the 4 orders of magnitude difference.