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Geothermal cooling has been an attractive option in the U.S. Northeast since it emits very little carbon into the atmosphere compared with compressed refrigerant systems which use lots of electricity. Geothermal cooling is based on the fact that the ground basically stays around 50-55 degrees farenheit all year round unless the ground is near a hot spring or volcanic fault line. I would think that the temperature of the earth will warm a little bit which would affect the temperature of the cooling fluid.

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Edward
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  • I would think that the temperature of the earth will warm a little bit Why and how? – Jan Doggen Oct 06 '19 at 20:50
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    Do you perhaps mean a GROUND SOURCE heat pump? These are often fraudulently called "geothermal" by salespeople, but a true geothermal system is something quite different. Ground source heat pumps increase the efficiency of heating & cooling by using the constant temperature underground as one side of a heat pump, rather than the air. – jamesqf Oct 07 '19 at 03:54

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I presume that by geothermal cooling you mean geothermal energy. Yes, it's an attractive option and is used a lot in Iceland, but unfortunately there are not many places that have such easy access to it as Iceland. Geothermal energy will be just one source of non-polluting energy, along with hydro-electricity and many others. Today's global warming is just a passing phase, and will be followed sooner or later by another ice age.

The Earth is gradually cooling as geothermal heat is lost into space and the crust is getting thicker, as has already happened on Mars, but this will have no noticeable effect on Earth for many millions of years, by which time we will have gone to join the dinosaurs.

Michael Walsby
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    Hydro-electricity is only conditionally "non-polluting". Apart from ecosystem destruction and the sometimes severe impacts on hydrology, some hydro lakes emit a lot of methane due to flooding vegetation, either at construction (which can be avoided) or seasonally (which is harder to avoid). – gerrit Oct 07 '19 at 08:53
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    Next Ice Age would take place in some thousands of years. Do you really think militars are going to left Europe and Northamerica froozen with the technology we will have in year 3000 or 4000? Conversely, present warming is a major issue and we don't have a safe geoengineering to stop it yet. Also we have nationalisms that make geoengineering a law issue. Probably we won't have those troubles when next ice age starts. –  Oct 08 '19 at 19:17
  • It will be a miracle if we survive the next 4,000 years without bombing ourselves back to the stone age. – Michael Walsby Oct 08 '19 at 20:00
  • Lol we will survive. Bots will save us of our ignorance as if they were an allien superclever civilization visiting us :) –  Oct 08 '19 at 20:43
  • @Leukocyte: It's far more likely (IMHO) that global warming will render humans extinct within the next 500 year or so. (Along with most higher life forms - see Permian-Triassic extinction.) – jamesqf Oct 10 '19 at 17:24
  • @jamesqf It is true 10 more degrees and acidification of ocean killed life in pt, but I hoppe democrats win some elections in those 500 years and start to solve this. Geoengineering is possible but this is now a law issue (aswell as it still needs study). If you modify climate on a place it can affect negatively other countries. As for the energy transition Germany have started it and when germans start to work everybody know what happens. The models from Meteofrance I show said 4 degrees for 2100 with no transition, but the transition has started. –  Oct 10 '19 at 17:30
  • I don't know how deep is the issue with acidification of oceans but I hoppe we solve those issues along s.xxi hoppe to live to see it. Politicians sometimes sucks but I don't think they are going to leave us at a pt mass extinction situation. Militars wouldn't allow it –  Oct 10 '19 at 17:31
  • @Leukocyte: You are much more of an optimist than I. Not to digress too far into politics, but even if Democrats really cared that much, the US is only a small part of the world. As for the Germans, they may have started, but now they're in the process of stopping, shutting perfectly good, CO2-free power plants. – jamesqf Oct 12 '19 at 02:43
  • @jamesqf well if CC becomes a disaster the hole capitalism will fail. China is another main actor. Myself I think we will be saved, but population increase, there I think they will limite it. –  Oct 14 '19 at 16:59