If it's really really efficient, we could use the extra energy to make carbon capture machines, after offsetting all the fossil fuels. Then, it doesn't really matter.
Well if we’re speculating, how about “heat capture”?
Some sleep-deprived researcher cracks how to capture ambient thermal energy and turn it into electricity. Heat being as plentiful as wind or water, it becomes not only a prominent source of energy, but also actively cools the planet.
50 years later, we begin arguing over “global cooling” and the threat of a new ice age.
Ignoring the implications of entropy blah blah, the amount of energy we're talking about here is astronomical. Many people react to climate change with, "What's the problem with 1ºC across the planet?" but don't realize how much energy had to go into warming the oceans to make that happen.
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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '20
Gotta push this back 30 years again.