I understand that the main issue of global warming is greenhouse gases that trap solar energy instead of allowing it to bounce back into space. That being said, I've always had this impression or idea that the amount of energy released from burning fossil fuels should also have an effect. Consider from antiquity to about 1600 AD, the sum of heat being dumped into the atmosphere came from the sun. Now, after the industrial revolution, a new source has been added, that being human activity (burning coal, burning petrol, burning natural gas, thermonuclear weapons, nuclear reactors). While I suspect human activity has no measurable comparison against the output of the sun, I'm wondering if it has an impact on global warming to any degree.
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I suspect no but I don't have the numbers to hand to back it up. – bon Jun 02 '16 at 18:38
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3I don't have time to write a proper answer, but this open-access paper from last year addresses your question very adequately: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015GL063514/full . From the abstract: "Over the long lifetime of CO 2 in the atmosphere, the cumulative CO 2 -radiative forcing exceeds the amount of energy released upon combustion by a factor >100,000." – Pont Jun 02 '16 at 19:26
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@SimonW I think that this is a duplicate of the question you've identified – 410 gone Jun 06 '16 at 07:37
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Yes it does. But who really cares... we won't be burning fossil fuels in about 50 years. New technology will have replaced this very very primitive practice of burning fossils. Why is everyone so worried about something that will go away in a few years... relax. There will be a little more damage done to earth but we need energy. Fossil fuels will be totally gone soon. Just chill out. People are well meaning but, really, you are worried about something that is almost ready to go away. – slindsey3000 Feb 01 '17 at 16:26
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@slindsey3000 have you taken the argument of God, our Lord and Savior, into your analysis? I believe this global warming is caused by God, and that God wants people to live in a more tropical environment. – Steve G Feb 01 '17 at 17:06
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@SteveG No I have not. Not at all. I am saying why worry about something that is about to go away. I would not worry about "safe cars" either... driverless cars will be around in 15 years. Accidents will be reduced by 99.999%. Just tough it out for a bit. The future is bright for us all. – slindsey3000 Feb 01 '17 at 17:35
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@slindsey3000 I don't understand. What does car safety have to do with global warming? – Steve G Feb 01 '17 at 17:38
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@SteveG No on brought religion into this. Please don't start. – Sidney Feb 01 '17 at 17:41
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@slindsey3000 I appreciate your optimism, and hope you're right. My pessimism says otherways, but you know what they say about low expectations. – Sidney Feb 01 '17 at 17:41
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@Sidney Do you think we will be burning fossil fuels in 50...100 years? There is zero chance we will be using these primitive "fossil fuels" in the future. – slindsey3000 Feb 01 '17 at 17:48
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@slindsey3000 I hope you're right. While it's true technology marches foreward, there are still people out there who think they will never break even on solar panels, people who thing that wind turbines kill entire flocks of migratory birds etc. Most importantly people still exist who don't believe in global warming at all, so they see no need to embrace new technology when their old fossil fuel based tech has served them so well. They'll die out of course, but what about the lessons they impart to their kids? What about developing countries who don't see it as their responsibility? – Sidney Feb 01 '17 at 17:51
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@Sidney I agree with all that. I just don't see the need to worry about something that is going away soon. – slindsey3000 Feb 01 '17 at 18:01
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Yes, it does add to global warming.
No, it's not currently measurable.
Human primary non-renewable energy consumption is about 15TW - and pretty much all of that goes into low-grade heat in the ocean surface and the atmosphere.
Expressed in the same terms as the forcing units of global warming, the forcing effect of that heat is about 1.7% of the effect of the anthropogenic release of $\ce{CO2}$ to date.
So we can calculate it, but it's not directly measurable as a change to global energy content: it matters, but it's not quantifiable from temperature observations, given current data and techniques.
(Kudos to Pont for the link to the paper)
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