Global warming

[zuluimpi]

"Why is global warming attributed only to the release of carbon dioxide? Published figures for oil production seem to indicate that the thermal effect of burning this oil is equivalent to running a one kilowatt electric fire on every square yard of the earth`s surface. Surely this is also significant?"

[jake-the-peg]

I don't know the numbers - and in these questions the actual numbers are everything - but I would guess that the actual heat created by humans is insignificant compared to the heat reflected or re-radiated from the Sun.

It is the degree of insulation provided by greenhouses gasses stopping an increasing amount of this heat escaping that is the problem.

Incidently where do you get that figure from?

[Hymie]

I read somewhere (but can�t remember where), that the total fossil fuel energy released by mankind (since we first discovered fire), is less than the energy the earth receives from the sun over a 24 hour period.

[jake-the-peg]

Maybe

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/1997-03/8 53558324.Ph.r.html

1500 watts per squre meter

at 510 million square kilometers I make that 6.6 x 10�� joules per day.

Thats about 2 trillion tonnes of coal


But remember it's not the heat that's important here - it's not what's heating it up, it's the insulation effect.

And small amounts of insulation can have a real big effect.

If you don't believe me take off that fraction of an inch of clothes your wearing and go stand outside for an hour or two!


Remember the Ozone hole (now thankfully closing since we stopped using certain aerosoles)

How many fridges and deodorants did it take to make that?

Small things can have big effects!

[beso]

And the big difference between the florocarbons that damaged the ozone layer and the carbon dioxide is that the flurocarbons are beginning to decompose.

The vast majority of the CO2 we have released is still in the atmosphere and will continue to retain heat the on the earth for thousands of years even if we completely stopped burning right now.

This is why the emission reductions being proposed are woefully inadequate.