Throughout humanity’s history, our energy use has steadily increased, now reaching a point where it’s affecting the climate. Even if we do switch to renewable energy, we’ll continue to generate waste heat that will be put into the environment, continuing to warm our planet. Researchers calculated that if energy use increases by 1% per year, it would make a planet like Earth uninhabitable within 1,000 years. Going to space will be the only way to continue growth.
That doesn’t seem right… A renewable power source turns into heat regardless if it’s used or not.
If you build hydropower for example and generate electricity, that power will certainly turn into heat in the end, but if you don’t build hydro power, the potential energy of that water will just turn into heat sooner.
Same thing with biomass: if you leave the forest alone, trees will go through their natural life cycle, die, biodegrade and turn into heat all the same.
Isn’t this basically the first law of thermodynamics?