Print Version (180622 bytes)

EOS, TRANSACTIONS AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION, VOL. 89, NO. 28, doi:10.1029/2008EO280001, 2008

Long-Term Global Heating From Energy Usage

Eric J. Chaisson

Wright Center, Tufts University, Medford, Mass., USA
Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Mass., USA

Abstract

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 10⁸ years and thus about 1°C increase in Earth's 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.

Published 8 July 2008.

Index Terms: 0416 Biogeosciences: Biogeophysics; 0315 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0426, 1610); 1011 Geochemistry: Thermodynamics (0766, 3611, 8411).

Print Version (180622 bytes)

Citation: Chaisson, E. J. (2008), Long-Term Global Heating From Energy Usage, Eos Trans. AGU, 89(28), doi:10.1029/2008EO280001.

Copyright 2008 by the American Geophysical Union.