Does global warming have an effect on the inertia of Earth?

Question

In 1905 Einstein stated in his paper "Does the inertia of a body depend upon its energy-content?" that an object absorbing energy, for example light, will acquire a larger inertia and gets more difficult to accelerate. Now, since the earth is heating up by means of the easier absorption of light energy, can one now say that this has a measurable effect on the orbit of earth around the sun, which is related to gravitational acceleration. And, if so, what might this effect be?

Answer 1

Well presumably a very slight increase in temperature would cause a very slight thermal expansion leading to a very slight increase of mass moment of inertia.

Answer 2

No measurable effect whatsoever.

Answer 3

The earth's mass is very large, and the atmosphere and oceans are merely a film on the surface.  What's more, global warming is a very small change in temperature overall - the catastrophic effects are a result of the complexity of ocean and atmosphere patterns.

In short you'd have a small increase in energy of a small percentage of the earth's mass.  I can presume such an effect could reduce the sun's ability to pull us in toward it, but do not believe such an effect would be large enough to be measurable, never mind significant.

Note:  There is no outward acceleration involved in an orbit, only gravitational 'acceleration' and inertia.  We are in a state of constant acceleration with a changing direction.

Answer 4

You could have a point, The earth absorbs from the sun, and SHOULD radiate heat out in all directions. A reduction of radiation would mean a very slightly larger orbit, but i am guessing it would be in the order of inches.

Answer 5

The Earth is travelling in an orbit.  This means that all acceleration must have an equal deceleration (or else the orbit would not be stable).  Increasing the inertia of the planet would effect both equally. This would result in a "wash", or no overall measurable effect.

Also, when dealing with a mass the size of Earth's, one would have to add incredibly huge amounts of energy to create any remarkable difference in the inertia.  Remember, the Earth (mach II) was in this same basic orbit when it was in the molten state.  Global warming (if real) does not involve the kinds of energy levels present then.