Earth traps 4 Hiroshima bombs of heat every second
Climate is accumulating 4 Hiroshima atomic bombs worth of heat per second
Our planet is accumulating heat at a staggering rate of 250 trillion Joules per second, equivalent to four Hiroshima atomic bombs exploding every second. Most of this heat—over 90%—is absorbed by the oceans, with the rest warming the land, air, and melting ice. This warming is driven by human emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. A new widget helps visualize this immense heat uptake, which shows no sign of slowing.
Our climate is accumulating 4 Hiroshima atomic bombs worth of heat every second.
- voxic11
To heat all the water in all the Earth's oceans by 1 degree Celsius it would require the energy equivalent of the detonation of roughly 87 billion Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs.
- TazeTSchnitzel
I guess that demonstrates the concept of “a drop in the ocean”, but turning a massacre of civilians into a unit of energy feels crass at best.
- mikewarot
The short term solution to this problem may be to burn gigatons of liquid sodium in the exhaust of jet engines in the stratosphere.[1]
If you burn liquid sodium in steam, you end up with sodium bicarbonate particulate of just about the right size to offset global warming.[2]
[1] https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20250000498/downloads/Re...
- MadrasTh0rn
I don't know about you guys but I'm feeling it
- ChiMan
The earth would take on heat from the sun in any case. Is this additional heat?