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I recently learned that waste heat will boil the oceans in about 400 years.

Sabine Hossenfelder · 767.2K views · 2023-02-25 · 22:38

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Overview

Sabine Hossenfelder explains that waste heat from ever-growing energy use could eventually boil the oceans in a few centuries, whatever the energy source. She discusses proposed ways to cool the planet.

On Hacker News

HN cites it in energy debates as an illustration of the long-term thermal limits of exponential energy consumption growth.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2023–2024

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What people said

alxmng · 2024-06 · Recommendation

You might enjoy Sabine Hossenfelder's video exploring this "I recently learned that waste heat will boil the oceans in about 400 years": [VIDEO] It turns out we can probably solve this by building planetary chimneys 5km tall that move heat to the outer atmosphere.

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nostromo · 2024-01 · Recommendation

It’s based on extrapolation of current trends, so I doubt it’ll actually happen. Besides, we’d all die before it got to that. But here are some sources that describe it: [VIDEO] (commentary from Sabrine Hossenfelder, highly recommended) [LINK] [LINK]

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audunw · 2024-03 · Reference

No matter which energy source you use, increasing energy use will eventually cause problems. With nuclear power, eventually you'll add so much waste heat added to the atmosphere that it will be worse than greenhouse gases: If we continue increasing energy consumption at current rates and cover it with nuclear power the ocean will boil in 400 years: [VIDEO] Obviously that's not meant to be a serious scenario. But it's illustrative. I don't see the problem of lifting everyone up while using less energy. We just gotta be smart about the solutions we make, rather than just brute-forcing it by using lots of energy. Like: I prefer to bike to work. That makes my life better. I also prefer living in a walkable/bikeable town. If I'm forced to drive a car the energy associated getting to work will be very high. If I can use an e-bike it's a tiny fraction, and I get to exercise without wasting time in a gym.

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Sources

Video by Sabine Hossenfelder, played through YouTube.

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