<p>I presume that by geothermal cooling you mean geothermal energy. Yes, it's an attractive option and is used a lot in Iceland, but unfortunately there are not many places that have such easy access to it as Iceland. Geothermal energy will be just one source of non-polluting energy, along with hydro-electricity and many others. Today's global warming is just a passing phase, and will be followed sooner or later by another ice age.</p>

<p>The Earth is gradually cooling as geothermal heat is lost into space and the crust is getting thicker, as has already happened on Mars, but this will have no noticeable effect on Earth for many millions of years, by which time we will have gone to join the dinosaurs.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-07T08:53:55.577Z
Hydro-electricity is only conditionally "non-polluting".  Apart from ecosystem destruction and the sometimes severe impacts on hydrology, some hydro lakes emit a lot of methane due to flooding vegetation, either at construction (which can be avoided) or seasonally (which is harder to avoid).
gerrit
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-08T20:00:57.493Z
It will be a miracle if we survive the next 4,000 years without  bombing ourselves back to the stone age.
Michael Walsby
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-10T17:24:12.033Z
@Leukocyte: It's far more likely (IMHO) that global warming will render humans extinct within the next 500 year or so.  (Along with most higher life forms - see Permian-Triassic extinction.)
jamesqf
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-12T02:43:31.787Z
@Leukocyte: You are much more of an optimist than I.  Not to digress too far into politics, but even if Democrats really cared that much, the US is only a small part of the world.  As for the Germans, they may have started, but now they're in the process of stopping, shutting perfectly good, CO2-free power plants.
jamesqf
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-06T21:59:05.607Z
2019-10-06T22:04:27.100Z
2019-10-06T22:04:27.100Z
Michael Walsby
<p>Geothermal cooling has been an attractive option in the U.S. Northeast 
since it emits very little carbon into the atmosphere compared with
compressed refrigerant systems which use lots of electricity.
Geothermal cooling is based on the fact that the ground basically
stays around 50-55 degrees farenheit all year round unless the ground is near
a hot spring or volcanic fault line.
I would think that the temperature of the earth will warm
a little bit which would affect the temperature of the
cooling fluid.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-06T20:50:22.770Z
*I would think that the temperature of the earth will warm a little bit* Why and how?
Jan Doggen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-07T03:54:15.767Z
Do you perhaps mean a GROUND SOURCE heat pump?  These are often fraudulently called "geothermal" by salespeople, but a true geothermal system is something quite different.  Ground source heat pumps increase the efficiency of heating & cooling by using the constant temperature underground as one side of a heat pump, rather than the air.
jamesqf
<geothermal-heat>
Will geothermal cooling be greatly affected by global warming?
Edward
# Will geothermal cooling be greatly affected by global warming?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-10-06)

Geothermal cooling has been an attractive option in the U.S. Northeast
since it emits very little carbon into the atmosphere compared with
compressed refrigerant systems which use lots of electricity.
Geothermal cooling is based on the fact that the ground basically
stays around 50-55 degrees farenheit all year round unless the ground is near
a hot spring or volcanic fault line.
I would think that the temperature of the earth will warm
a little bit which would affect the temperature of the
cooling fluid.

**Tags:** geothermal-heat

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: *I would think that the temperature of the earth will warm a little bit* Why and how?  
> **username_2**: Do you perhaps mean a GROUND SOURCE heat pump?  These are often fraudulently called "geothermal" by salespeople, but a true geothermal system is something quite different.  Ground source heat pumps increase the efficiency of heating & cooling by using the constant temperature underground as one side of a heat pump, rather than the air.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2019-10-06. Score: 1

I presume that by geothermal cooling you mean geothermal energy. Yes, it's an attractive option and is used a lot in Iceland, but unfortunately there are not many places that have such easy access to it as Iceland. Geothermal energy will be just one source of non-polluting energy, along with hydro-electricity and many others. Today's global warming is just a passing phase, and will be followed sooner or later by another ice age.

The Earth is gradually cooling as geothermal heat is lost into space and the crust is getting thicker, as has already happened on Mars, but this will have no noticeable effect on Earth for many millions of years, by which time we will have gone to join the dinosaurs.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: Hydro-electricity is only conditionally "non-polluting".  Apart from ecosystem destruction and the sometimes severe impacts on hydrology, some hydro lakes emit a lot of methane due to flooding vegetation, either at construction (which can be avoided) or seasonally (which is harder to avoid).  
> **username_3**: It will be a miracle if we survive the next 4,000 years without  bombing ourselves back to the stone age.  
> **username_2**: @Leukocyte: It's far more likely (IMHO) that global warming will render humans extinct within the next 500 year or so.  (Along with most higher life forms - see Permian-Triassic extinction.)  
> **username_2**: @Leukocyte: You are much more of an optimist than I.  Not to digress too far into politics, but even if Democrats really cared that much, the US is only a small part of the world.  As for the Germans, they may have started, but now they're in the process of stopping, shutting perfectly good, CO2-free power plants.  

---

