Renewable Energy: Stirring up a Hornet's Nest

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clear blue Associate Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 28 Good Answers: 1	Renewable Energy: Stirring up a Hornet's Nest 12/04/2007 2:54 PM
	This is a quoted Fact I took from the Presidential Forum on Renewable Energy http://www.2008energyforum.org/topics/renewable/; - "Enough sunlight falls on the earth every minute to meet the world's energy demands for an entire year." Assuming they mean the world's current energy demands, and assuming the industrial revolution has been going for 240 years (a deliberately rounded up liberal figure to keep the maths easy for me), and even assuming that our current energy demands have prevailed ever since the start of the industrial revolution (an extremely liberal assumption), then since the start of the industrial revolution, human energy demand has put about 4 hours worth of the sun's heat into the world, in addition to that which the sun has put. Human activated Global Warming? I don't think so.
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Irving Power-User Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Saratoga, NY Posts: 103 Good Answers: 3	#1 Re: Stirring up a hornet's nest 12/04/2007 4:08 PM
	The contribution to global warming by humans is not from the direct heat input but from the added insulation from CO2 and other gases we've added which lets less of the direct solar energy gain radiate back out into space.
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case491 Guru Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 1817 Good Answers: 7	#2 Re: Stirring up a hornet's nest 12/04/2007 4:25 PM
	Not sure about your comparison and time equations but it does not matter. What they mean is the energy of the sunlight that hits the earth every minute (including the clouds if it is cloudy) adds up to roughly the same power as what we use every year as an entire poplulation. I don't understand your concept of mistrust in this? Global warming has nothing to do with it, in fact any heat you mention has nothing to do with it. It is just a comparison of power, one energy form (sunlight that hits the globe) compared with all the energy forms we use, added up together. "Pretty impressive way of looking at it" would be my first impression, not "I don't think so".
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tubenut Power-User Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Bensenville il Posts: 127 Good Answers: 1	#3 In reply to #2 Re: Stirring up a hornet's nest 12/04/2007 6:10 PM
	case491 well put! __________________ Vote your hope not your fear.
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Anonymous Poster	#4 Re: Renewable Energy: Stirring up a Hornet's Nest 12/05/2007 12:28 PM
	OK. The Earth's total surface area is something around 1040160000000 square feet (including France). So if my home is roughly 2000 square feet, then all I need to do is once per year is nip out to my workshop and create a sun about .00000000193 the size of Earth's sun and operate it for one full minute, catching all its warm lovely output. And I'll never pay another electric or gas bill again! What if I forgot and left the sun running for, say, 5 mintues while I answered the phone? Would everything within my property boundries have to "burn" all that extra energy in order to reach equlibrium with the neighbor's land next door? How would this affect me? Would I just instantly grow 4 minutes older? Wouldn't that hurt a bit? I'd probably have to be rushed to the hospital. Would the extra fossil fuel the ambulance used up come out of my yearly allowance or would it contribute to global warming?
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Hendrik Guru Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Centurion, South Africa Posts: 3921 Good Answers: 97	#5 Re: Renewable Energy: Stirring up a Hornet's Nest 12/05/2007 1:28 PM
	Quit a lot of energy reaches the world but fortunately we would never have the capability of using it all. Imagine a tree not receiving any energy to remove the C from CO2, or the ocean not allowed to heat up and cause warm currents or evaporate to supply moisture that can be distributed and precipitate as rain. Looking at the forecast for tomorrow made me realize that tomorrow the sun would be responsible of raising the temperature in the whole of SA by an average of over 12°C. The accumulated heat will be lost to space during the next night. __________________ Never do today what you can put of until tomorrow - Student motto
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Anonymous Poster (1); case491 (1); Hendrik (1); Irving (1); tubenut (1)

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