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How would cheap energy affect the world's climate?

The current high price of electricity and gas makes us all careful about how much we use. But if an extremely cheap form of energy generation was discovered (e.g. nuclear fusion) so that people were no longer worried about their gas and electricity bills, what would be the effect on the earth of the resulting huge unfettered increase of energy usage?

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  • Asked by ericpode
  • on 2010-11-27 11:52:30
  • Member status
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Categories: Environment.

Tags: Earth, energy.

 

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Paul_Pedant says:

Absolutely none.

The solar radiation received on Earth amounts to about 1.5 KW per square metre. That's about equivalent to carpeting the whole world (including the oceans) with electric heaters. No personal or industrial requirement could make a blip in that figure.

Any energy system that did not create greenhouse gas (methane, carbon dioxide, water vapour) would be absolutely just dandy.

The issue at present is not the heat energy we release. It is just that our technology for our meagre energy requirements affects the composition of the atmosphere in a way that traps the incident solar radiation.

As something of a global warming sceptic, I have to point out that atmospheric composition is affected in much the same way by natural phenomena like volcanic activity, oceanic acidity, and so on that might be completely unrelated to any man-made effects. And quite possibly our Sun is a variable star, and our chaotic weather system may have various long-term pseudo-stable configurations that change the whole scheme.

However, if you have a method for nuclear fusion on your garden shed, please do not let my cynicism prevent you from making it available to us all.

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Tags: Earth, energy.

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posted on 2010-11-28 00:26:20 | Report abuse


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