The Earth just is not a solar sail. The Earth is actually highly reflective, but most of the reflectivity is in the atmosphere, mostly clouds. The energy it is eating is not transmitted as kinetic energy to the surface at all. Ice cover is also very reflective, the so-called albedo effect. At any given time, however, most of the Earth's ice is near one or the other of the poles. These areas are icy precisely because they are very inefficiently irradiated. Again, the momentum transfer of photon to water molecule will not be transmitted without loss down through the lithosphere. The loss will in fact be something like 100 percent. It's all friction, all heat and no large-scale mechanical motion. That's where the energy goes and if it goes there, it can't push the Earth around.
If solar sail effects could push planets around, we would have spotted it in the orbit of Mercury. Mercury is very much closer to the Sun. It also has no atmosphere or oceans. Being far less massive than Earth, it has a more favorable surface/mass ratio and thus simply easier to move with a tiny but relentless push. Whether or not its as reflective, it should be a far better solar sail with all of the preceding going for it.
Doesn't happen. The day side gets spectacularly hot. It's still all heat loss. There is no notable acceleration out of its current orbit. There's a funny precession from other causes of the long axis about the Sun, but no net outward drift.
Stupid model. Period.
The model he used was for a small speck of dust. The Earth is a much larger speck of dust.
The model he used was for a small speck of dust. The Earth is a much larger speck of dust.