Can we really stop global warming?

The link to the article has a great analysis of why our solutions to Global Warming must be selected with care.  Why?  Because we cannot escape the science (read: Rules of the Universe).  Thermodynamics Second Law states that all energy converts to thermal energy.  What does this mean?  Currently, the uranium buried in our crust and the geothermal heat beneath our crust is stable.  In the case of uranium, it is neither concentrated nor having its energy extracted.  In the case of geothermal energy, it is in thermal equilibrium with the surface.  By extracting energy from the uranium (rather than letting it be) we put that energy into our environment (surface and air).  Extracting geothermal energy also does the same thing.

Is this of consequence, right now? Well, not right now, because the amount of energy we are talking about is small.  However, and this is the important part, the amount of energy our civilization will require will continue to grow over time because the population of the planet will grow and more and more people will move into first-world energy use.  Sure, at some point, this energy use will stabilize, but that happens when the amount of energy can have an impact on global temperatures.

Keep in mind, we are not talking about global temperature rise due to global greenhouse gases and their ability to trap the sun's heat.  We are simply talking about the impact of adding energy to our ecosystem, and it's inevitable conversion to heat!

What do we do about this?  Since the earth/sun/heat cycle has had some semblance of stability for the earth's history, we should only use energy generated from the sun which includes Solar, Wind and Wave.  Solar would be direct production from PVs or indirect production through biofuels and burning vegetable materials.  Winds are produced by the sun via unequal heating/cooling of the land, oceans and atmosphere.  Waves/tides are generated by winds and gravity.  Sure, the moon contributes to tides.  But, it's tidal energy is also converted into heat, so the pathway is not critical, we can safely convert the moon's portion of tidal energy without adding more heat to the ecosystem.

Why is this discussion important?  So, that we don't waste time on technologies that are not sustainable.  If we are going to correct our long term energy solution, let's try to do the best we can for future generations.  We won't be perfect, we will make unforeseen mistakes.  It would be nice to not make known mistakes.  We've ignored the science of global warming for far too long.

Thermodynamics has been well understood for hundreds of years.  Let's ignore it when planning for the future.