emissions aren't the only potential cause of global warming
Solar energy, even if emissions were not necessary to manufacture and install solar panels, absolutely warms the planet.
Normally about 30% of sunlight is reflected back into space, on average across the planet's surface. Solar panels only reflect 3-5% of sunlight back into space. The sunlight that is converted to electricity eventually ends up released into the atmosphere as waste heat, as that electricity is consumed.
If we were to cover 1/3 of the planet's surface with solar panels, we would increase the total amount of heat retained from the sun by over 10%. This would be enough to boil off the oceans, ending life as we know it.
Similarly, nuclear power produces waste heat. If we were to develop commercially feasible fusion power, fusion power would produce waste heat.
One example of how waste heat works in the real world is the Urban Heat Island effect. Cities, which throw off a lot of waste heat, are generally 3-4° F warmer than their rural surroundings. If we humans continue growing our economies faster than our energy efficiency, then we'll throw off more waste heat, and eventually this waste heat would boil off the oceans.
We aren't actually replacing our fossil fuel consumption with nuclear/solar, instead we're increasing both categories. But if we were to replace fossil with nuclear/solar/fusion, then eventually economic growth would still boil off the oceans via waste heat.
Economic growth is already causing mass species extinctions and global warming. We could tinker around the edges by reducing emissions (which we haven't actually done), but if we continue growing the economy at 2% per year we will eventually have no water left on the surface of the planet and no rainfall, and atmospheric temperatures consistently above 212° F.
Probably not during our lifetimes, but, within this Third Millennium AD. There is an absolute physical limit to economic growth on planet earth. We can't "grow our way out" of this problem. Growth is the problem.
Normally about 30% of sunlight is reflected back into space, on average across the planet's surface. Solar panels only reflect 3-5% of sunlight back into space. The sunlight that is converted to electricity eventually ends up released into the atmosphere as waste heat, as that electricity is consumed.
If we were to cover 1/3 of the planet's surface with solar panels, we would increase the total amount of heat retained from the sun by over 10%. This would be enough to boil off the oceans, ending life as we know it.
Similarly, nuclear power produces waste heat. If we were to develop commercially feasible fusion power, fusion power would produce waste heat.
One example of how waste heat works in the real world is the Urban Heat Island effect. Cities, which throw off a lot of waste heat, are generally 3-4° F warmer than their rural surroundings. If we humans continue growing our economies faster than our energy efficiency, then we'll throw off more waste heat, and eventually this waste heat would boil off the oceans.
We aren't actually replacing our fossil fuel consumption with nuclear/solar, instead we're increasing both categories. But if we were to replace fossil with nuclear/solar/fusion, then eventually economic growth would still boil off the oceans via waste heat.
Economic growth is already causing mass species extinctions and global warming. We could tinker around the edges by reducing emissions (which we haven't actually done), but if we continue growing the economy at 2% per year we will eventually have no water left on the surface of the planet and no rainfall, and atmospheric temperatures consistently above 212° F.
Probably not during our lifetimes, but, within this Third Millennium AD. There is an absolute physical limit to economic growth on planet earth. We can't "grow our way out" of this problem. Growth is the problem.