| We are a small non-profit located at the end of WillowStreet on the bluff of the Kenai River. Our gift store is open 9 to 5 daily. We are researching how much heat is generated by human activity on earth and trying to put numbers together. We hold a global warming conference every Saturday 1 to 4 with live music and refreshments. No alcohol please! For more information call Henry Kroll at (907) 252-1390. www.AlaskaPublishing.com | |
| IS GLOBAL WARMING A REALITY? We're still working on the answer to that question. As we get closer to our host stars yes we will eventually experience global warming. In the mean time here are a few numbers: The average person sitting in a chair gives off 340 BTUs per hour. A thousand persons in a building run the air conditioning costs up to 340,000 BTUs per hour. We can determine these numbers by measuring the air conditioning costs of various office buildings. When you are doing hard physical work the average person puts out up to a thousand BTUs per hour. There are conservatively 6.7 billion persons on the planet putting out a minimum of two trillion two hundred seventy eight BTUs per hour. Five percent of the world's energy is produced by nuclear. Scientists claim more but they don't count the third world nations energy needs. The moon imparts 2E20 joules of energy on the earth moving the tides around and stirring up the magma beneath our feet. How many watts of energy is that? One thousandth of that energy distributed equally over the surface of the earth is equivalent to 490 watts per square meter. |
Going from a cold Winter to a hot Summer the sun imparts a total of 20 watts per square meter on Earth. The world's current oil consumption is 85 to 90 billion barrels per day. Each barrel of oil produces 5.8 million BTUs. What is more important than BTUs released by this oil when it is burned is the soot produced. The micro soot is accumulative and causes what scientists call "global dimming." |