>Every time I read something about climate change and warming it always points to fossil fuels and emissions, usually in a hand-wavy sort of way.
Maybe you should change what you're reading because climate science is quite rigorous. The mechanisms are relatively well understood, there's nothing hand wavy about it.
I believe it is both. The CO2 helps to trap more of what the earth receives from the sun (primarily what is talked about with global warming), but our energy use is also staggering. I can't recall off the top of my head but we currently consume something equivalent to ~0.1% of the total solar radiation incident on the earth (through all means - oil, gas, solar etc). At that scale, the energy use alone is on the scale of other warming effects, wild!
A solar panel hooked up to an LED light bulb does not create virtually any waste heat… and a heat pump creates heat but it also creates cold. Global warming as I understand it is mostly about solar radiation being trapped within the atmosphere due to changes in the atmosphere itself and not really due to anything we’re doing at ground level heat-generation-wise (only gases emitted)
I am not an expert so this is just my gut talking, but I suspect that the effect of emissions on the energy that the planet absorbs from the sun dwarfs the heat that our machines produce by some very large multiple.
Yes, and that’s been the line of thinking taught in schools and every discussion I’ve read on this topic for at least 20 years. Yet, there never seems to be any concrete proof that heating is being caused by excess energy being trapped inside the atmosphere because “emissions”. Again, it’s all very hand wavy.
I’m not saying that’s NOT the method of action, it totally could be, but I would think there would be more evidence nowadays compared to 20 years ago but there doesn’t seem to be. Everyone just parrots everyone else.
I’m just thinking of Occam’s razor. Perhaps the planet is getting hotter because were just producing a fuckload of heat. It doesn’t need to be anywhere near the energy the planet captures from the sun. But day after day, over decades, surely the minuscule amount of heat being generated by activity on the surface has SOME cumulative effect. Or maybe not, i dont know.
p_j_w|2 years ago
Maybe you should change what you're reading because climate science is quite rigorous. The mechanisms are relatively well understood, there's nothing hand wavy about it.
imnotreallynew|2 years ago
rolldat777|2 years ago
lukevp|2 years ago
zinckiwi|2 years ago
imnotreallynew|2 years ago
I’m not saying that’s NOT the method of action, it totally could be, but I would think there would be more evidence nowadays compared to 20 years ago but there doesn’t seem to be. Everyone just parrots everyone else.
I’m just thinking of Occam’s razor. Perhaps the planet is getting hotter because were just producing a fuckload of heat. It doesn’t need to be anywhere near the energy the planet captures from the sun. But day after day, over decades, surely the minuscule amount of heat being generated by activity on the surface has SOME cumulative effect. Or maybe not, i dont know.