system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How much heat does the earth lose to space?

I hear a lot about global warming and it got me thinking that the earth must naturally lose a lot of heat out into space over any given period, so how much are we losing?
gpt
The rate of heat lost by Earth is given by the Stefan-Boltzmann law. It states that the rate is proportional to the fourth power of temperature of Earth’s surface, multiplied by a constant and a physical quantity called emissivity, which is the ratio of energy radiated compared to a “perfect” object. With an average temperature of about 15 degree Celsius, or 288 Kelvin, as well as an emissivity of 0.7-0.9, the heat loss is about 270-350 W m-2. This roughly balances the incoming solar radiation, averaged 340 W m-2. Multiplied by the surface area of Earth, 4pi x 6370000^2 that is roughly 1.5 x 10^17 W. Compare this to 1000MW generated by a typical nuclear power plant, that is about 150000000 nuclear power plants generating the same amount of heat as the Earth loses.

EDIT: Interaction with atmosphere like scattering and absorption makes the real amount of outgoing radiation very close to the amount of incoming solar radiation. However, the order of magnitude would be still the same.