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I wonder: CO2 emissions are often discussed, but what is the effect of the heat generated from our billions of machines? > In 2007 the world consumed roughly 5
by 7373737373 3y ago
I wonder: CO2 emissions are often discussed, but what is the effect of the heat generated from our billions of machines?
> In 2007 the world consumed roughly 500 quadrillion BTUs of energy and is expected to increase at 1.4% per year. [1] About 90% of this energy was generated through fossil fuel combustion with a typical efficiency of 30-40%. The remaining 60-70% of the energy was lost to the environment via automotive exhaust, industrial processes, and more.
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2010/ph240/weisse1/ http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2010/ph240/weisse1/
- gilbetron 3y agoMy quick calculation shows about 6e22 BTUs of energy hit the Earth every year, 5e17 BTUs consumed by us. So that's 0.01% of heat from our consumption. Total napkin math, but if it is in the ballpark, that's pretty negligible.
- 7373737373 3y agoAccording to this: https://scholarsandrogues.com/2013/05/09/csfe-heat-capacity-air-ocean/ https://scholarsandrogues.com/2013/05/09/csfe-heat-capacity-... it would require 6e21 J (1 BTU ~= 1000J) to heat the entire atmosphere by 1°C, so just 6e18 BTU, so with our consumption that would be 1/10 of that, so on the order of 0.1°C extra per year (assuming no sinks)? On another note, this would also imply that if all of the excess energy stored in the ocean (20e22J, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_heat_content#/media/File:1955-_Ocean_heat_content_-_NOAA.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_heat_content#/media/File...) would be dumped into the atmosphere at once, it would warm up by 33°C