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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Is that Hansen in the photo ?
Can’t we get one of him in handcuffs
/joking
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.
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!
It should be Omgwtfs….
Maybe we should equate Hansen’s dribblings to unicorn farts..
How do you convert Suzuki’s and Gore’s into Hansen’s? What is the exchange rate? ;-))
Here is my 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.
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.
Even if we assumed this to be true, what is the problem? Let us assume this heat is all going into the ocean. (It certainly has not warmed the air over the last 10 to 15 years!)
The energy of one bomb is 6.3 x 10^10 kJ, so in one year, that would be 6.3 x 10^10 kJ x 400,000 x 365.24.
The mass of the ocean is 1.4 x 10^21 kg and its specific heat is about 4 kJ/kgK. So we can equate
6.3 x 10^10 kJ x 400,000 x 365.24 = 1.4 x 10^21 kg x 4 kJ/kgK x change in t. The temperature change turns out to be 0.0016 C per year. At this rate, it would take over 600 years to warm 1 C.
Did a quick math calculation based on Levitus 1993-2010, approximately 10 ZJ (10^21 J) per year, which gives you about 2.7 10^19 Joules over a day. Given Hiroshima produced 63 TJ (63 10^12), you get 434877 Hiroshimas.
Yep, calculation is correct. But what is the point?
Could we have that in Manhattans of ice melted please. I was raised on the old system.
0,6 Watt increase per day equals 220 W after a year, and since the Earth only receives about 340 W per square meter as it is, Hansen’s figures implies that we may expect the oceans to start boiling in August or September.
As always, when Willis has his say there is not much more that needs to be said.
Thanks, Willis, from your Gualala neighbor.
Inspirational image behind Hansen. Thanks.
Mike
ex B-52 driver
We’re warming the planet by the equivalent of burning 1.5 billion polar bears EVERY DAY!!
Sheesh.
It’s Bush’s fault, for not making Hansen understand the muzzle was for Hansen’s own good.
RE:Willis Eschenbach says:
May 15, 2012 at 12:43 pm
That’s interesting and not just because it saves me from from a headache. The models for AR5 are supposed to be programmed to believe that greenhouse gas forcing has increased by ~3.5W/m^2 since industrialisation – leading to ~0.8°C warming.
[self-snipped so you don’t have to]
new source of natural global warming identified 🙂
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120515093947.htm
So instead of BTU’s, we now have BHU’s!
Chris B
Thank you, I needed a laugh.
It’s entirely a moot question. Data have come to light which demonstrate that CO2 is entirely regulated by temperature, and the Earth is sequestering our CO2 input with barely a nod.
The above linked woodfortrees plot shows that the rate of change of CO2 and temperature anomaly, with respect to an appropriate baseline, are directly proportional to each other. This means that temperature is leading CO2 concentration, so the former is driving the latter, and not the other way around. The evidence is incontrovertible.
Conclusion: human inputs are entirely superfluous for determining the CO2 content of the atmosphere. If you know your starting point, and the temperatures since, you can calculate the current CO2 concentration to a high degree of significance.
It’s a shame he is standing in front of a volcano and not in it. Now that would be global warming on a Hansen scale.
On average about 700,000,000,000 Watts every hour 24 hours a day 365 days a year or 6,132,000,000,000,000 Watts per year are generated by the entire human race.
Exterminate.
It’s called one upmanship versus the EU climate crazy. Its a form of giantism in evolution such as dinosaur development and liars.
The energy emitted by the Little Boy was not so much, it was just released fast. The Hoover Dam produces the same amount in about half a minute. Therefore 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs per day is equal to 140 Hoover Dams.
Yeah, and people will believe it because a scientist said it, without even bothering the check where he got his numbers, not unlike the reaction my students give to numbers that don’t make sense. They just don’t have the ability to judge whether something is reasonable or not. It’s a result, so it must be right (plus it’s too much work to try to do it again).
R Taylor says:
May 15, 2012 at 1:09 pm
Of course it’s Bush’s fault. It was George Bush that started the illegal Peloponnesian War for oil!