News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on 2023 was earth's warmest September In 174 year record. Parent comment

Re:2023 was earth's warmest September In 174 year record by esarbe on Sunday October 15, 2023 @12:23PM (#37891073)
Just try to imagine the ludicrous amount of energy required to heat up the whole surface - and probably a good part of the ocean - by 2°C.

I think it is in the order of 10^17 joules or so.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:2023 was earth's warmest September In 174 year record by mr_mitm on Sunday October 15, 2023 @01:56PM (#37891853)
But that is distributed over a ludicrous amount of volume. These numbers are so large that I can visualize neither. How is this information supposed to help me?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:2023 was earth's warmest September In 174 year record by esarbe on Monday October 16, 2023 @07:51AM (#37898447)
Not sure you need to consider that much of a volume; we're talking about surface temperature, so you can just take an approximation of heat capacity of the surface of Earth.

First I would check the number that I gave you and make sure it is correct. Then you put it into perspective; e.g. how many millennia would it take for a couple of hundred nuclear reactors to produce that much of energy.

Play with the numbers and see what you can learn about them.

[ Parent | on HN ]