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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Jonathan Watts

What are zettajoules – and what do they tell us about Earth’s energy imbalance?

Earth WMO
Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland.
The WMO warns that the world has a huge and growing energy balance, caused by burning fossil fuels, which is warming the oceans, land and air to dangerous levels. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian

The primary unit of climate collapse is the zettajoule. If you have never heard of this term, you are not alone. Even scientists who work on a planetary scale struggle to relate the immensity of the change measured by this titanic unit of energy.

What is a zettajoule?

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