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.
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$\begingroup$ I would think that the temperature of the earth will warm a little bit Why and how? $\endgroup$– Jan DoggenOct 6, 2019 at 20:50
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3$\begingroup$ 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. $\endgroup$– jamesqfOct 7, 2019 at 3:54
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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.
answered Oct 6, 2019 at 21:59
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1$\begingroup$ 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). $\endgroup$– gerrit ♦Oct 7, 2019 at 8:53
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1$\begingroup$ Next Ice Age would take place in some thousands of years. Do you really think militars are going to left Europe and Northamerica froozen with the technology we will have in year 3000 or 4000? Conversely, present warming is a major issue and we don't have a safe geoengineering to stop it yet. Also we have nationalisms that make geoengineering a law issue. Probably we won't have those troubles when next ice age starts. $\endgroup$– user12525Oct 8, 2019 at 19:17
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$\begingroup$ It will be a miracle if we survive the next 4,000 years without bombing ourselves back to the stone age. $\endgroup$ Oct 8, 2019 at 20:00
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$\begingroup$ Lol we will survive. Bots will save us of our ignorance as if they were an allien superclever civilization visiting us :) $\endgroup$– user12525Oct 8, 2019 at 20:43
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$\begingroup$ @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.) $\endgroup$– jamesqfOct 10, 2019 at 17:24