No second chance: can Earth explode as a result of Global Warming?

Geophysics Division, Scientific E Research P/L, Melbourne, Australia ^ | 8 April 2001 | Dr Tom J. Chalko

[mjf]

So far everything is okay, I haven't felt any tremors in Kansas, so I think I'm safe. I'm going to cut up that tree limb that fell now, but I will be back to give you folks a good idea of what this scenario means.

[TommyDale]

Plaque can be eliminated by flossing and brushing regularly.

[meyer]

Man, are they getting desparate or what???

[pabianice]

As long as we avoid over-mining -- like the Klingons did on Praxis -- we should be all right...

[Neenah]

We need to SIMMER DOWN ! Tom Ridge is on duty !!

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

hmmmm . . . . When this is proven wrong, they'll come up with yet another scheme.

[Brett66]

The enviro-DeathStar destroys polluting planets such as ours:

[relee]

Yes, the earth will explode as a result of global warming in about 5 billion years when the sun turns into a red giant.

[The Sons of Liberty]

Excuse me, I have to run and put on my tinfoil hat!

[ancient_geezer]

It becomes clear why they call it Piled Higher & Deeper.

Tell me, for after it all blows up, should I invest in a parka for the following nuclear winter?

[DallasMike]

Where does that guy buy his clothes? And who cuts his hair?

[boris]

As Neils Bohr (or was it Von Neumann? Fermi?...) once commented, "It's not even wrong."

In other words, it is so silly that it does not deserve refuting.

Next.

--Boris

[Brett66]

Is that moldy cheese he's wearing around his neck?

[finnman69]

I think Hollywood is making this into a movie next year.....

The Core
Genre: Adventure/Science Fiction.

Studio: Paramount Pictures.
Production Company: Unknown.
Project Phase: Greenlighted.

Who's In It: Aaron Eckhart (Dr. Josh Keyes); Hilary Swank (Major Rebecca "Beck" Childs); Tcheky Karyo (Sergei Putechin); D.J. Qualls; Bruce Greenwood (Colonel Robert Iverson); Stanley Tucci; Delroy Lindo; Alfre Woodard.

Who's Making It: Jon Amiel (Director); Cooper Layne, Eric Bernt, Sean Bailey, John Rogers (Screenwriters); David Foster (Producer).

Premise: After decades of dumping our nuclear waste into the bowels of the Earth, the planetary core reaches a critical state. It's up to a group of "terranauts" piloting an experimental craft to break through the Earth's mantle and repair the problem before the core superheats and destroys all life on the surface.

[boris]

OK, I glanced at the PDF "paper". It would be rejected by the majority of referreed scientific journals in the world.

Two words: radiation cooling. Even if this clown is correct in positing that the core is a solid and is acting as a reactor, the earth is cooled primarily by radiation. The famous fourth-power law says that the energy flux is proportional to the temperature to the 4th power. Hence small increases in temperature lead to large emissions of power, which is a naturally-correcting negative feedback loop.

The genius appears to forget that the entire earth contains radionucleides and is generating heat. This is part of the reason it gets warmer as one goes deeper. Think about it. Some of the heat is from compression; the rest is from radioactive decay in the local strata.

Finally, heat is carried from the core by a very effective convective cooling loop. This cooling has functioned for millions of years, including eras when the CO2 content of the atmosphere was much higher than today. It has also functioned during eras when the output of the Sun was ~50% higher than today.

End of discussion. Poppycock.

--Boris

[NTNgod]

"Yes, the earth will explode as a result of global warming in about 5 billion years when the sun turns into a red giant."

I'm afraid we don't even have that long. The Earth will probably be toast in a mere 3 billion years when the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way collide. The horror! :)

[mjf]

True, but you are going to have to do it more often if the Environmentalists are right!

[Sabertooth]

(((ping))))

[mjf]

There ya go, that's exactly right.

Here's the other side.

[TaxPayer2000]