Via Tom Nelson, no wonder they hate nuclear power so much, they don’t see any difference!
Global warming increasing by 400,000 atomic bombs every day | The Vancouver Observer
The amazing persistence of CO2 in the air has allowed billions of our small emissions, like those from the Enola Gay, to amass into an ever growing threat to civilization. How fast is that threat growing? In a must-see TED talk, NASA climate scientist James Hansen say the current increase in global warming is:
“…equivalent to exploding 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs per day 365 days per year. That’s how much extra energy Earth is gaining each day.”
That’s 278 atomic bombs worth of energy every minute – more than four per second — non-stop. To be clear, that is just the extra energy being gained each day on top of the energy heating our planet by 0.8 degree C. It is the rate at which we are increasing global warming.
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Update: I think we need a new unit to quantify ridiculousness. I propose the Hansen Ridiculae Scale, somewhat like the Richter scale, logarithmic in nature.
Turning up the thermostat at a senate hearing in 1988 would rate a 5.0 Death Trains might rate a 6.0, this would rate an 8.0.
I’m afraid to imagine what a 9-10 on the Hansen Scale might look like.
ALSO: I’m busy at work right now, so I don’t have time to research it fully and calculate it, but if somebody wants to quantify the solar insolation received by Earth each day in “Hiroshima units”, I’ll add it to the main thread. That number will dwarf Hansen’s claim.
UPDATE2: Willis helps out:
Here’s your numbers, Anthony.
1 ton of TNT = 4.184e+9 joules (J) source
Hiroshima bomb = 15 kilotons of TNT = 6.28e+13 joules (ibid)
Hansen says increase in forcing is “400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs per day”, which comes to 2.51e+19 joules/day.
A watt is a joule per second, so that works out to a constant additional global forcing of 2.91e+14 watts.
Normally, we look at forcings in watts per square metre (W/m2). Total forcing (solar plus longwave) averaged around the globe 24/7 is about 500 watts per square metre.
To convert Hansen’s figures to a per-square-metre value, the global surface area is 5.11e+14 square metres … which means that Hansens dreaded 400,000 Hiroshima bombs per day works out to 0.6 watts per square metre … in other words, Hansen wants us to be very afraid because of a claimed imbalance of six tenths of a watt per square metre in a system where the downwelling radiation is half a kilowatt per square metre … we cannot even measure the radiation to that kind of accuracy.
w.
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As do others:
Napkin calculation, no calculator needed: Hiroshima was ca. 63 TJ = 6E13J. The earths circular area is 3 * (6E6m)^2 = 1E14m2. The suns TSI is ca 1kW = 1E3 J/s, so the earth gets ca 1E17 J/s on the sunlit side, so the sun explodes about 1E17/6E13 = 1E3 Hiroshima atomic bombs on this planet. EVERY SECOND.
Mr. Hansen: the sun explodes about a thousand Hiroshima bombs on this planet. EVERY SECOND. DO something about it!
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I think it’s divined from, Levitus et al. (2012), which estimates two bombs per second in excess heat absorbed by the oceans. Moreover, if all that extra stored heat went into the bottom 10 k of atmosphere instantaneously it would heat it by 36 degrees C.
Yikes!
Funny: a guy called Evans( think) recently showed a graph here showing that while 11 IPCC type models showed the earth receiving net heat the only actual; observation (via NASA satellites) showed the opposite. Nullius in verba, as the Royal Society used to say, before it became a missionery Society.
speachless. and this person has a standing in NASA??
If it is gaining the energy, where is it supposed to be storing it?
That is, quite possibly, the most stupefying thing I have ever heard. Wow.
And this guy uis stilll getting acheck from the taxpayers!!!!!!
How much is that in birthday candles?
As human beings, we cannot adapt to massive amounts of nuclear radiation.
But we can adapt to a few degrees of temperature change.
Aren’t even the greenest of warmistas embarrassed by his ridiculous comments?
Do people forget that this guy is now a millionaire for saying things like this?
If I were paid his income, I’d say the same things.
This guy is hilarious.
The Hiroshima atomic bomb gave off 63 Terajoules (TJ) of energy. So, 400,000 of these per day would be 2.52 x 10^19 joules of energy delivered to the Earth.
Contrast that to the binding energy of the Earth (the amount of energy that would take to literally blow the planet apart) which is 2.24 x 10^32 joules.
So, he’s basically saying we are delivering more than half of the energy needed to physically destroy the planet per day?
I am actually beginning to pity the man. I think he may be in need of some professional help.
Expect the shrillness from the CAGW types to increase exponentially up to the US election in November. They know their funding will be cut substantially if things don’t go their way, politically speaking.
Does anyone here post on RC? If so, make sure to put in a post about this NASA “scientists” observations. I would love to see what they have to say about it.
I am speechless.
Talk about scare tactics, this guy is no scientist he is a cult evangelist.
I do like the idea of the hansen scale though. I can think of no better way for Hansen to be remembered in the history books.
Oops, sorry, I didn’t mean to say “half of the energy”, since it’s order of magnitude and thus not even close. My goof!
To put this into daily solar energy input: “The total solar energy absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and land masses is approximately 3,850,000 exajoules (EJ) per year.” Or 10,547 EJ per day. Hansen is saying we’re adding 25 EJ per day, or 0.27 % of the Sun’s daily input.
I guess it really isn’t all that much after all.
In the style of Hansen: alarmism is burning a hole in the soul of every human on the planet. It especially targets babies and small cuddly animals. I swear Hansen will tell us next that carbon will evolve into a polar bear eating entity and use slide shows from the film Alien as ‘proof’. In fact i’m sure he is hoping for collective amnesia and tell us that the eclipse next month which will darken the earth is caused by Mann made carbon. Heck nighttime didn’t exist until T-Rex had one bronto burger too many and had bad gas. In light of his ‘standards’ i’d like to share my own talk about how the Kraken has been released and is going to eat the world’s supply of polar bears (that is if the alarmists don’t charter ships so they can eat all the polar bears first-thus proving Mann was a threat afterall). I will also detail how global warning sharks (hybrid/jumping) are seen swarming around all climate variations…sorry disaster /sarc
Ged says:
May 15, 2012 at 12:14 pm
which is 2.24 x 10^32 joules.
So, he’s basically saying we are delivering more than half of the energy needed to physically destroy the planet per day?
Half of 2.24 x 10^32 is 1.12 x 10^32.
Half the energy to destroy the planet? I’m pretty sure powers of ten don’t work like that… More like 1/10^13 of the energy needed.
This guy is a complete farce. My credulity in people’s ability to believe this utter tripe, and the media’s insatiable appetite to print it is at breaking point. It really does now bear all the hallmarks of a religion.
I’ll get my calculator out but Leif will probably ninja me.
Don’t knock him; let him bang on and show the World how stupid he and his AGW disaster story are.
If that many Hydrogen bombs can only warm the earth by less than a degree I’d suggest a more efficient energy source.
good grief…..and that’s only with an extra 200ppm CO2…above the level that plants won’t grow
Just Imagine how bad it was when CO2 levels were in the thousands!
Actually, it has been cooling.
http://www.letterdash.com/henryp/global-cooling-is-here
“Hansen Scare Scale”… catchy, catchy. 🙂
Let it be known as the HSS factor.