Burning Coal Is Hot; Its Warming Is Far Hotter

Think of a holiday road trip’s effect on the climate this way:  the amount of heat a car contributes to the atmosphere because of its carbon emissions may be 100,000 times greater than the actual heat given off by its engine.

That’s the conclusion of a Carnegie Institution for Science study published Tuesday that shows two things:  emissions from burning a lump of coal or a gallon of gas has an effect on the climate 100,000 times greater than the heat given off by burning the fossil fuel itself.  And, the heat trapped by those emissions can be felt within just a few months of the fuel being burned.  Burning fossil fuels is the globe’s biggest source of human-caused greenhouse gases and the primary cause of climate change.

Warming caused by burning coal in a power plant can be felt in the atmosphere within 95 days — the time it takes for the emissions released from the plant to trap enough heat to exceed the amount generated from the plant itself, according to the study.  That process takes 124 days for a crude oil-fired power plant and 161 days for a power plant burning natural gas.

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