There is a significant amount of discussion on OLO regarding CO2 and climate change. Many believe we should switch from carbon-based fuels to so-called renewable energy sources like solar, wind and wave energy, as well as geothermal.

To set the scene, Wikipedia (Topic: Electricity Generation) says that “The [global] production of electricity in year 2008 was 20,261 TWh which was [equivalent to] 11% [11.6%] of solar energy the earth receive in one hour (174,000 TWh).” Of this, it says 13,675 TWh was from coal, oil and natural gas, which is about two-thirds of the total, or 7.9% of the terrestrial solar energy received.

I invite the OLO community to submit opinions on this question:

Could extracting energy from the sun, wind and waves cause a change in the global climate?

I’m not talking about a windmill here and a solar panel there but converting most of the current carbon-based electricity generation on the planet to these sources and projecting future increases in power needs as well (rate of increase 2001 – 2008 about 600 TWh pa).

For example:

- could extracting too much energy from the wind change the patterns of air circulating in the lower atmosphere and change the global climate?

- could absorbing a significant proportion of the solar radiation falling on the earth’s surface (and converting it to electricity, using, say, PV technology) mean that less energy goes into warming the atmosphere and we will be faced by cooling trend?

I simply don’t know the answer and will be very interested in responses and/or references to any research that has been done in this regard. Please consider.

Peter Mac,

<< There is a significant amount of discussion on OLO regarding CO2 and climate change>>

Correct, thousands of posts, masses of research and well articulated cases. Start there and for goodness sake, stay away from Wikipedia.

If you have a hidden agenda and intend “baiting” OLOers, a word of caution, a full thermal protection suit would be recommended.

Good luck.

Thanks for your advice spindoc, I think.

The question is genuine and the Wikipedia reference was simply a starting point; not a statement by me that it is an authority on anything.

Can you answer my question?

Wikipedia is always a good starting point, then follow the references and the wiki article discussion threads.

Well thanks bonmot, for giving us the directions to head off down the garden path, to join the fairies.

Why didn't you give us the directions to the IPCC, where we could sup on complete BS

Keep your head in the sand Hasbeen - because the references don't always lead to the IPCC - they even lead to journal articles, that cover all persuasions