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Regardless of CO2, does anyone have a sense of how much heat we are putting into the earth system by burning non-renewables?
by CaptainXMoonman 9y ago
Regardless of CO2, does anyone have a sense of how much heat we are putting into the earth system by burning non-renewables?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- philipkglass 9y agoFossil combustion is directly heating the Earth by ~16 terawatts. Radiative forcing from human emitted CO2 (primarily fossil combustion) is ~1 watt/m^2: https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-climate-forcing https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indica... Multiplied by the surface area of the planet, 510,000,000 km^2, that's 510 terawatts heating from CO2 in the atmosphere. As time goes by the relative importance of radiative forcing continues to increase, because fuel produces heat for just a short time as it burns but the combustion emissions amplify the effects of sunlight for years to come.
- bpodgursky 9y agoThe earth is always radiating heat, balanced against new heat from the sun. Absent the heat-trapping effects of CO2, the generated heat would quickly dissipate to equilibrium.