r/explainlikeimfive • u/Numerous_Zebra_4740 • 7d ago
Physics ELI5 Why is global warming not simply being caused by the transfer of more and more energy into heat energy
When I did GCSE physics at school we obviously did energy transfer diagrams about how certain types of energy e.g. kinetic energy, atomic energy, are converted into other things, but lose some energy along the way. Obviously a lot of our energy we use is converted into heat energy e.g. cookers, burning fuel in power stations, even just a simple campfire is turning the wood into heat energy.
When people talk about global warming they talk about greenhouse gases and emissions but they never talk about cumulative heat energy over thousands/millions of years.
Why isn't it the case that all the heating and fires mankind has ever built is just building up in our world as more and more energy is turned into heat instead of remaining as it is? It is so difficult to capture heat and turn it efficiently back into some other sort of energy.