I accept that global warming is a fact. I have not come across any evidence that shows a greenhouse effect from increased levels of carbon dioxide, so I’d sure like to see it.
However, I wonder why no one is looking at all the heat we are producing every year. In 2003, we humans consumed 80,000,000 barrels per day of crude which amounts to a lot of heat. At 5,800,000 btus per barrel that means we put out 1.7 x 10[sup]17[/sup] British Thermal Units that year. Never mind the consumption of other energy sources like hydro, nuclear and other fossil fuels. All this heat is generated to heat and cool our homes, run our appliances and keep our vehicles and machines moving to overcome friction.
So where does all this heat go ? We do have this thing called conservation of energy and I can’t see how this heat we produce gets lost.
I don’t think the OP is asking for better ways to recoup that waste heat. He is just asking if that might be part of the cause for GW.
And, although the Sun might contribute orders of magnitude more heat, if I stand in 6 feet of water, all it takes is one more inch to drown me. That inch might be little next to the 6 feet already there, but it is all it takes to make a difference in my level of comfort.
I think the question is certainly not without merit, even if the answer is that it doesn’t make much of a difference.
As for answering the OP, I don’t have a good answer. I can start by saying that it all ends up being radiated back into space. As for the rates at which it happens and how our production of heat affects it, I will have to wait for the heavy-duty science guys to arrive.
The Flying Dutchman: Please go read the new UN report being released today. A report by hundred of scientist from 114 nation I believe are 90% certain that Global Warming is being caused by Human Green House Gases.
This should finally be enough proof for any doubter. I hope it is and we can get serious about making the changes required to halt the problem. My state alone will lose 1% of its land if we do not act. I shudder to think what will happen to Florida.
The flooding and hurricanes will making Katrina look normal in all likelihood.
There’s a mildly simple way to fix this, you know. It could, probably be done with today’s technology. It might require some maintenance, but I’m almost entirely sure it could be done.
Nature works by balance. Energy in equals almost energy out, and biosystems thrive on the difference, to a limit.
Scientists who study the ocean floor are finding that huge amounts of methane cathcates are stored in deep sea floor beds by temprature and pressure. raise that local temp by just a 1/10 of a degree and the cathcrates become unstable. That means that all of a sudden the cathcates release their methane, and it bubbles to the surface.
These cathcates are stored literally from pole to pole.
See Scientific American, Nov, 2006, for an interesting articale on trhe limited stability of these compounds.
What is suggested, is a run away green house effect, as these cathcates are realeased. (the more methane in the amosphere, the more heat can be retained, the more heat retained, the more cathcates released)
So what does it mean when even Foxnews posts the new findings?
PARIS — Scientists from 113 countries issued a landmark report Friday saying they have little doubt global warming is caused by man, and predicting that hotter temperatures and rises in sea level will “continue for centuries” no matter how much humans control their pollution.
BTW: Some good news. We could stop this. We have the ability. There is no silver bullet but rather a massive effort on many fronts.
It is time to clean up our power industry and auto industry.
It is time to phase out incandescent bulbs and phase in fluorescent and LED.
It is time to pass strict efficiency standards on appliances and cars.
It is time to invest in new cleaner nuclear power plants.
It is time to keep pusher even harder for new and more solar and wind solutions.
It is time to build houses to new more efficient standards.
We need to increase funding for Fusion power.
We need to seriously pursue a hydrogen fuel system. Maybe LA, Chicago and NYC could pilot test this with Federal help.
Time for serious investment in getting plug-in very low emission Hybrids into production with tax breaks to encourage sales.
It is time to get serious about global warming and save our shores.
Jim {sorry it is very late, I know I forgot many good additional solutions}
My understanding is that the report is by over 2000 scientests.
To be honest, I cannot see how 2000 scientists can contribute to a report, it sounds as if someone sent out a form of multiple choice questions and did an average on the replies.
If that is so, then I would put it down as a classic example of ‘pseudo science’.
There was also a lot of nonsense about a 3 degree rise making most of Spain and France uninhabitable - obviously whoever decided that has never been to an equatorial country.
The Flying Dutchman has a good question, basically it seems that the Earth radiates shed loads of energy of into space. There is some sort of mechanism that maintains an equilibrium - or more accurately has maintained a form of equilibrium for a period that is less than a blink of an eye when compared with the age of Earth.
For some reason people have decided that a 100 foot high set of scales with some sort of balancing mechanism, can be pushed into disequilibrium by a couple of ants dancing the Rumba in one of the trays.
We have no idea whether we are experiencing a blip, a natural long term climate change or an impending disaster caused by aliens beaming unknown particles at us.
It just happens that a lot of people have a vested interest in whipping up hysteria about global warming - scientists like funding, politicians like taxing and the finance boys just love the idea of carbon trading.
Some UK politicians are setting of to the USA to see whether they can interest individual States to participate in European carbon trading - if the Feds have any sense they’ll arrest them for attempted fraud.
Try this instead. Thousands of scientist continued doing contributing research to one of the biggest concerns to humanity today. These thousand of scientist reached a 90% certainty that Humans are causing the current global warming trend.
No conspiracies, just a lot of science, evaluated and distilled for one massive report.
Traditionally, projects involving thousands of people are accomplished by organizing the participants into groups which handle subtasks. Such organizations can take many forms.