If I am right, a small mass is converted into a large amount of energy in a nuclear power station e=m*c². Now I’m not so much concerned about the radioactivity, but rather about this production of energy. This is because with other energy extractions you convert potential energy into electricity and when this electricity is ‘used’, you get back the potential energies of before.
With this nuclear energy you create energy, but as long as the particle accelerator in Geneva has not reached its ultimate goal, energy is not converted back into mass anywhere. Now I wonder if this nuclear energy, which usually results in heat after conversion to electricity, does not contribute to global warming?
Thanks for your answer.
Answer
Hi Tim,
The energy generated by man, in whatever form, is absolutely negligible compared to the amount of energy that falls on the earth daily in the form of solar thermal radiation. The reason why the earth does not immediately warm up to hundreds of degrees is because the earth also radiates exactly the same amount of energy back. So even if humans generate a little energy, the earth simply radiates that excess energy back into the cold space.
Heat is indeed a form of energy. But the problem of global warming actually has to do with temperature. The greenhouse gases that humans emit, such as CO2, put a blanket over the earth, as it were. As a result, the earth can no longer radiate the excess energy as well. By means of a higher temperature, the earth will be able to radiate better again in order to bring the amount of incoming and outgoing energy back into balance.
In conclusion, we can therefore say that the temperature of the earth is determined more by the way in which the earth radiates energy, than by the amount of energy it has to radiate.
regards,
Ward
Answered by
Dr. Ir. Ward Blondé
Physics Bioinformatics
http://www.ugent.be
.