5,005 Little Boys
The issue of global warming may be difficult to comprehend because of the large geologic time scales which are associated with the carbon cycle. While 300 years may seem like a long time in the human mind, it is a literal blink of an eye in geologic time. Humans' acceleration of certain parts of the carbon cycle is the entire basis for the greenhouse global warming phenomenon.
Fossil fuels are estimated to have formed over the course of 100 million to 300 million years. Most of them will be gone by the end of the 21st century, meaning that human beings will have essentially used them all through the course of 300 years, where fossil fuel use started on a large scale in the 18th century.
This means we will have used them 667,000 times faster than they were formed. The number 667,000 also happens to be somewhat close to the number of seconds in one week, so we will compare these two units of time using a fossil fuel derivative that we are all familiar with: gasoline.
Every week in the U.S., 2.65 billion gallons of gasoline are purchased (and therefore, consumed).
The amount of energy contained in 2.65 billion gallons of gasoline is equivalent to 5,005 15-kiloton Little Boy/Hiroshima-style atomic bombs.
Over the course of a week through normal combustion in automobile engines there is little noticeable effect, as we take this for granted in hauling ourselves around.
But what if we accelerated the rate of energy release by a factor of 667,000 by igniting 5,005 15-kiloton bombs across the country all at the very same second? They wouldn't even have to be nuclear, just 476,000 gallons of gasoline apiece mixed with ammonium nitrate or other oxidizing agent would do the trick.
Imagine 476,000 gallons of gas being completely detonated in one second in Manhattan, downtown LA, or any urban area. Then multiply that by 5000 for the bombs ignited across the remainder of the country.
Quite obviously, releasing one week's worth of gasoline energy in one second draws a dramatic corollary to the rate of consumption of fossil fuels and subsequent release of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. CO2 that was removed over the course of 200 million years is released in 300 years. Or one second in a week.
CREATED/WRITTEN: 2011-04-12 14:25