Energy of "25 billion atomic bombs" trapped on Earth in 50 years

Global warming has trapped an explosive amount of energy in Earth’s atmosphere in the past half century, the equivalent of about 25 billion atomic bombs, a new study finds

- HARRY BAKER

An international group of researchers estimated that between 1971 and 2020, around 380 zettajoules (380,000,000,000,000,000,0 00,000 joules of energy) have been trapped by global warming.

Such a big number is hard to put into context, but two researchers who were not involved in the study have put it into perspective by comparing the energy to that released by nuclear bombs. However, even then, the amount is still hard to wrap your head around.