Climate Disruption

A crude energy-centric model

1 C is not "just a little warmer" as most people think. The atmosphere is huge, and the additional energy stored within the atmosphere after that increase in temperature is huge. Let's measure it in terms of bolts of lightning, hurricanes, and other atmospheric energy events:


In [1]:
M = 5.1480E18 # kg (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth)
cv = 0.716 # kJ/(kg*K) (from https://www.ohio.edu/mechanical/thermo/property_tables/air/air_Cp_Cv.html)

In [2]:
dT = 1 # (the change in temp, degrees C or K)

In [3]:
dE = M*cv*dT
netE = dE*1000 # in Joules
netE


Out[3]:
3.685968e+21

In [4]:
Elightning = 1e9 # Joules (https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2012/05/could-we-harness-lightning-as-an-energy-source.html)

In [5]:
new_lightning = netE / Elightning
new_lightning


Out[5]:
3685968000000.0

In [6]:
time = 10*24*60*60 # 4 days * hours * minutes * seconds
Ehurricane = 1e13 * time # watts * seconds (http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/D7.html)
new_hurricanes = netE / Ehurricane
new_hurricanes


Out[6]:
426.6166666666667

TODO:

  • tornado energy
  • melting polar ice

In [ ]: