Addendum: For those of you who got here through a search related to Environmental Law, I apologize. This post is regarding the physics Laws of Thermodynamics as related to Climate Change, not Environmental Law.
I have a weird hypothesis (see my Theory Blog for the term Hypothesis) regarding a possible additional cause of climate change. This hypothesis does not substantiate or rebute any other proposed cause for the planet changing as it is; it does, however, depend on the Greenhouse Effect theory, which is the theory that certain gases in Earths atmosphere prevent a fraction of energy (as heat) from leaving the Earth into space. It is named for the Greenhouse, a type of building used to emulate tropical conditions for the purpose of gardening.
Think on this: Fossil fuels are used to produce energy for many processes. The fast motion of your vehicle to get you to your destination quickly while in air conditioning is a very common example of this kind of process. There are other types of materials used to produce energy for stationary things (such as buildings). Coal and nuclear power plants are great examples of this. People burn wood for warmth when they go camping in the winter and to conserve energy in their houses.
I am sure you can think of many other object used to produce the energy used by our modern society, as well as many more uses for this energy.
Before I begin with my hypothesis, it would behoove me to bring to the front of your mind the Law of Thermal Equilibrium, also know as the Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics. This states that when two objects are in direct thermal contact with one another, they will work towards being equal in temperature. We have a pot of boiling water on the stove, and we put a fist full of pasta (which is at room temperature) in the pot. If we take the pot off of the stove in that moment, then the pasta will increase in temperature and the water will decrease in temperature until they are at the same temperature. This is because the energy from the water is being transferred to the pasta. This is an example you can do in the kitchen.
When you leave your house and are about to enter the car to head to work, to a party, to a poetry reading, school, or where ever you're heading to, notice that the engine is cold. This is why in the western world, we've invented the term “The engine needs to warm up.” Also notice that when you get to your final destination and feel the hood of your car, it is warm to the touch, much warmer then right before you left the house. This is a qualitative “proof of concept” of this particular hypothesis.
The fuel you use to transport yourself from one place to another warms your engine. It also warms the surroundings of the engine via The Zeroth Law, which includes the air and suspension system below the engine and the hood above the engine. Since the hood is no longer in thermal equilibrium with the air around it, the air heats up as a result of the hood trying to cool down by transferring heat to the air. This increases the temperature of air around your car, and eventually that temperature change disperses throughout the city. This is overall a very small change, since a high heat exchange over a wide volume yields a very small heat increase for a small section of that volume.
Now consider how frequently you use your vehicle. The process of the previous paragraph goes on each individual time you use your vehicle. It is a small change in heat to the environment each time you do it, but the more often you perform this action, the more often you cause this small change. If you add up a bunch of small changes, you will eventually get to a moderate change brought up by yourself.
Now consider how many people use their vehicles in very similar means as you and with similar frequency as you. Each individual person with a vehicle will have the two paragraphs prior to this one apply to them as well. Each of these people will have an overall mild to moderate change of heat transferred from the engine to the environment. These mild to moderate changes add up quickly.
When this heat is transferred to the air, it does not vanish into non-existence. It does not disappear. It's still there, in the air, transferring from one atom to another. Moving with the atoms, from hot to cold. It does this until either the energy of the region is in relative thermal equilibrium or the heat is transformed into a different form of energy. (The latter is hardly ever done; consider how much money that process would cost compared to grabbing it from coal).
Think on how long cars have been around commercially, and how they have been increasing in numbers. The first company which sold these devices opened for business in 1895, and sales have been increasing ever since.
So, we have most people within the Western world using cars on a daily basis. That is nearly 3 billion of the 7 billion or people on the planet with vehicles, adding that small amount of heat into the air on a near daily basis. Just from use of motorized vehicles.
This is heat added to the planet is not returned to the compounds because of the First Law of Thermodynamics. The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy is neither created nor destroyed; it can only be converted from one type of energy to another.
One type of energy is potential energy, which is the energy stored in an object based upon its orientation, such as a ball about to be dropped from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Here, the potential energy is in the form chemical potential energy of gasoline in your car, released into the atmosphere when it reacts with oxygen in the presence of the spark from the spark-plugs in your car.
There is also mechanical energy, which is the energy conversion an engine tries to convert all of the potential energy to. This mechanical energy and consequent electrical energy is what allows you to drive your car in the comfort of air conditioning today.
Heat is another form of energy that is produced by the release of chemical potential energy, but heat in this location is not heat we find particular useful. So we let this heat be wasted, evaporated to the surrounding environment.
There is no reason to believe that this does not effect the temperature of local and global environments. Especially when you consider the fact that the planet Earth is in the early stages of a run-away Greenhouse Effect, such as can be seen on the planet Venus.
I want to know what you think. Do you believe the heat radiating from machinery such as vehicles helps in increasing the climate change problem? Please support your answer with authentic logic and scientific sources.
Speaking of scientific sources, here are mine for this post:
The Greenhouse Effect:
Astronomy Today 4th Edition; by Eric Chaisson and Steve McMillian; pages 170, 171 and 240-243; ISBN 0-13-093560-3
The First Law of Thermodynamics:
Physics for Scientists and Engineers; by Raymond A. Serway and John W. Jewett Jr.; pages 566-567; ISBN 0-495-01312-9
The Law of Thermal Equilibrium:
Physics for Scientists and Engineers; by Raymond A. Serway and John W. Jewett Jr.; page 533; ISBN 0-495-01312-9
First vehicle company:
Potential Energy:
Physics for Scientists and Engineers; by Raymond A. Serway and John W. Jewett Jr.; page 178; ISBN 0-495-01312-9
Chemical Potential Energy:
Chemistry: The Central Science; by Theodore L. Brown, H. Eugene LeMay, Jr., Bruce E. Bursten, and Catherine J. Murphy; pages 166-167; ISBN 0-555-03219-1
Mechanical Energy and Heat from Engines:
Physics for Scientists and Engineers; by Raymond A. Serway and John W. Jewett Jr.; pages 613-614; ISBN 0-495-01312-9
I hope you have learned something about the laws of physics and how they might be applied to climate change. Until next time, keep learning and don't forget to be awesome.
Take that as you will.
-K. “Alan” Eister Δαβ
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