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Bombing the Biosphere
A one megaton hydrogen bomb releases about 4,200 terajoules of energy.
Last year human beings released over 550 exajoules of energy.
This means that last year we unleashed the equivalent of 132,000 megatons of hydrogen bombs over the surface of the planet.
That’s one Hiroshima bomb every five seconds.
Since the end of World War II we have released the equivalent of 5 million one-megaton bombs on the planet.
The world’s entire nuclear arsenal today is estimated at “only” 5 thousand megatons.
Is it any wonder that the biosphere is looking a little battered?
