I agree, that sooner or later global warming from waste heat will become an issue...unless we can cancel the waste heat with waste cold which is considered impossible according to the laws of thermodynamics. Now, if the laws of thermodynamics are absolutely true (or if we simply believe they are absolutely true) and we also believe economic growth is good, then we *must* move out into space.
I prefer to question all these truths, so we don't do things or force or coerce other people to do things out of a false sense of necessity. Harry On Sun, Aug 5, 2012 at 3:14 PM, David L Babcock <ol...@rochester.rr.com> wrote: > On 8/5/2012 11:21 AM, David Roberson wrote: > It seems apparent that the final global consideration is that extra heat is > released into the atmosphere, land, and water of the earth as a result of us > burning fossil fuels. > > In other terms, one kilogram of coal results in the net earth heating of X > times the initial heat outlay. > > I found part of the picture in Wikipedia: The ratio of all the energy > incident from the Sun, to all the energy mankind used globally (in 2009?) > was roughly 6,000 to 1. (I assume this was only the energy that involved > payment, ie, almost all fossil sourced energy). > > Unknown to me is the added heat energy from "new" CO2 and methane. If our > present rate of warming is caused by (really wild guess) 1% more retention > of solar energy than "before", then that 1% is 60 times more than our total > energy consumption, for x = 60. If you diddle in the all the renewable and > nuclear parts it won't be much different. > > Hey, a wild guess is better than none. > > So if, if, if, all co2 sources get replaced by LENR, no problem. But bloody > unlikely. Also, there WILL BE a huge increase in total energy usage, > exponential, year after year after year. Might take us all of 200 years to > get back in trouble. > > Ol' Bab. > > > > I would greatly appreciate it if some of our esteemed members join into this > discussion. Do you consider my thought experiment completely off base or is > there a way to get a handle upon the true X factor I am suggesting? > > Dave > >
