What effect does the heat generated from burning fossil fuels have?

Question

When oil and coal are burned, heat is generated. Energy that was previously stored in chemical bonds is released as heat. Does this have any effect on the environment/climate or is it too small of an influence?

Answer 1

Both the heat and the CO2 produced from the combustion of fossil fuels are insignificant on the scale of global cycles. The Sun drives climate change on this planet.

Answer 2

There is no GW .. The left is propigating this and want the price of gasoline to go even higher to protect the enviremednt.

Answer 3

The heat itself is insignificant, it's the CO2 that causes the problems.

Answer 4

At the present time the heat generated is a relatively small contribution to global warming. However, if world energy usage continues to rise, this waste heat will drive global warming whether or not CO2 is generated.  This is true for all non-renewable energy, including nuclear. At the present rate of energy usage increase this may be a problem in 200 years or so.

Answer 5

GLOBAL WARMING

Answer 6

Its not the heat that has an effect, its the products of the chemical reaction that effect the ozone layer and atmosphere of earth.  I guess the heat generated makes the hood of the car hot, and if you touched it right after driving you might burn your hand a little.

Answer 7

Nothing other than it does a good job heating our homes and powering our cars.

Answer 8

9.4e12/(4*1.3e14) = An average global forcing of ~0.018 W/m2 (4*1.3e14 m2 is the surface area of the Earth and 9.4 is the global energy use from oil and coal in 2005 in TW). If you include natural gas, that number rises to ~0.025 W/m2.

Waste heat from fossil fuels isn't insignificant, but it isn't much currently.

Answer 9

Well, the entropy of the universe increases.

Answer 10

the heat generated is not particularly significant.

when you compare that to the energy from the sun, it's fairly minor.

the water, CO2, methane, etc act to preserve the energy that we receive from the sun.

as there is more energy, from burning coal and oil, then more infrared escapes.

now, there likely is some effect, however, it's not large, compared to the amount of energy received all over the earth, from the sun.

a poor analogy might be, if you poured considerable water into a large stream, and tried to measure the change down a bit, it'd be pretty hard.

there would be a difference, but you'd have a hard time separating it out.

Answer 11

Nothing  Volcanoes have a much greater effect than anything we do.

Global warming is a myth anyway I thought we were headed for an ice age