re: You asked
What affect would there be if last year Earth lost 1 billion tonnes of atmosphere?
I would say that the atmosphere would weigh 1 billion tons less.
I do not know if that amount would cause the observed effects, such as the ones mentioned in the above post.
So with that is mind how much atmosphere do you imagine Earth is losing?
I’m afraid that I can only imagine the amount of air that would need to disappear in order to cause the observed effects, certainly it would be a huge amount.
Some relevant information at this site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Greenhouse_Effect.svg
This process by which energy is recycled in the atmosphere to warm the Earth's surface is known as the greenhouse effect and is an essential piece of Earth's climate. Under stable conditions, the total amount of energy entering the system from solar radiation will exactly balance the amount being radiated into space, thus allowing the Earth maintain a constant average temperature over time. However, recent measurements indicate that the Earth is presently absorbing 0.85 ± 0.15 W/m2 more than it emits into space (Hansen et al. 2005). This increase, associated with global warming, is believed to have been caused by the recent increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.
Questions:
Earth is presently absorbing 0.85 ± 0.15 W/m2 more than it emits into space (Hansen et al. 2005).
What if this extra energy is generated by nuclear power plants instead of being caused by the greenhouse gasses?
How efficient are nuclear power plants?
What happens to the nuclear energy that is wasted in the production of electricity?
Why is the nuclear fuel more radioactive (energetic) when it comes out of the reactor than when it went in?