Open AccessLong‐Term Global Heating from Energy Usage
Author(s) -
Chaisson Eric J.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2008eo280001
Subject(s) - biosphere , non renewable resource , environmental science , global warming , greenhouse gas , greenhouse effect , term (time) , natural resource economics , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , climate change , astrobiology , renewable energy , economics , physics , geology , engineering , oceanography , astronomy , quantum mechanics , electrical engineering
Even if civilization on Earth stops polluting the biosphere with greenhouse gases, humanity could eventually be awash in too much heat, namely, the dissipated heat by‐product generated by any nonrenewable energy source. Apart from the Sun's natural aging—which causes an approximately 1% luminosity rise for each 10 8 years and thus about 1°C increase in Earths surface temperature—well within 1000 years our technological society could find itself up against a fundamental limit to growth: an unavoidable global heating of roughly 3°C dictated solely by the second law of thermodynamics, a biogeophysical effect often ignored when estimating future planetary warming scenarios.