Indirectly, Ottawa winters provide a good demonstration of just how immense a quantity of solar energy there really is on this planet. Consider the fact that the Earth’s axial tilt produces thirty degree weather here in the summer and negative thirty degree weather here in the winter. Walk out onto the frozen surface of Dow’s Lake and think about how the only reason the lake is ever liquid is because of the massive amount of solar energy striking it in the spring and summer. Then, recall that all the lakes and seas everywhere on Earth would freeze solid without the constant solar influx. This is well illustrated by the frozen moons in the outer portion of our solar system.
Burning all the world’s fossil fuels wouldn’t let us keep oceans liquid, in the absence of solar assistance. Moving to an energy system that relies directly (solar photovoltaic and concentrating solar) or indirectly (wind, hydroelectricity, biomass) on the sun is an overwhelmingly important part of creating a sustainable society. The amount of energy available to harness vastly exceeds the amount we can drill or dig up out of the ground.
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Every square metre of the Earth’s surface receives about 340 watts from the sun. Anthropogenic climate change has increased that by about 1.66 watts per metre: a total increase of 850 trillion watts (terawatts, TW).
For the sake of contrast, all of industrial civilization uses 13TW. The flow of heat from the Earth’s core to the surface – driver of volcanism and continental plate movement – is 40 TW. The net primary productivity of all of Earth’s ecosystems is around 130TW, 15-30TW of which are human croplands, pastures, and forestry plantations.
That gives some sense of just how enormous the influence of our greenhouses gasses is, because it affects the massive energy flow from the sun.
Note: All of these figures are from Morton, Oliver. Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet.
Another way to look at this is to note that for every watt of energy humanity uses for its own purposes, it is adding over 65 watts of warming power to the climate system.
Oil: enough energy to melt glaciers!
From a sharp-eyed reader comes this ad for Humble Oil (which later merged with Standard to become, yes, Exxon). It may win the All Time Millenial Award for Maximal Irony.