What could possibly go wrong?
Scientist Defends an Audacious Plan to Block Sunlight and Cool the Earth
David Keith was a graduate student in 1991 when a volcano erupted in the Philippines, sending a cloud of ash toward the edge of space.
Seventeen million tons of sulfur dioxide released from Mount Pinatubo spread across the stratosphere, reflecting some of the sun’s energy away from Earth. The result was a drop in average temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere by roughly one degree Fahrenheit in the year that followed.
Today, Keith cites that event as validation of an idea that has become his life’s work: He believes that by intentionally releasing sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, it would be possible to lower temperatures worldwide, blunting global warming.
Such radical interventions are increasingly being taken seriously as the effects of climate change grow more intense. Global temperatures have hit record highs for 13 months in a row, unleashing violent weather, deadly heat waves and raising sea levels. Scientists expect the heat to keep climbing for decades. The main driver of the warming, the burning of fossil fuels, continues more or less unabated.
Against this backdrop, there is growing interest in efforts to intentionally alter the Earth’s climate, a field known as geoengineering.
Interest by whom? People who are part of a cult and stand to reap the rewards?
But many scientists and environmentalists fear that it could result in unpredictable calamities.
Because it would be used in the stratosphere and not limited to a particular area, solar geoengineering could affect the whole world, possibly scrambling natural systems, like creating rain in one arid region while drying out the monsoon season elsewhere. Opponents worry it would distract from the urgent work of transitioning away from fossil fuels. They object to intentionally releasing sulfur dioxide, a pollutant that would eventually move from the stratosphere to ground level, where it can irritate the skin, eyes, nose and throat and can cause respiratory problems. And they fear that once begun, a solar geoengineering program would be difficult to stop.
So let’s change the mostly natural Holocene warm period and put the Earth back into a cool period. Or worse.
Cerified: Nutcase. SO2 is connected to cardiovascular issues. What’s his field again? Lincoln Logs?
Sulphur Dioxide? Isn’t that the main component of Acid Rain? Wasn’t there a major environmental campaign to shut down coal-fired power plants because of the SO-2 they emitted? Now they want to dump megatons of it into the atmosphere to solve a non-existent problem. I’ve seen better engineering in Roadrunner cartoons.
Not just that. About a billion dollars [placeholder for I don’t know how much but it’s a lot] on reducing SO2 from diesel exhaust?
It’s simple enough to do. Just place a hydrogen bomb on the caldera cap of active volcanos, detonate one a year, or as often as needed, to spew magna gases into the atmosphere, and the job is done.
Be sure, of course, to put the detonations under the control of the United Nations.
[…] a cult……it was more than me sarcastically mocking these buffoons. As William Teach notes……IT IS A FREAKING CULT! A Sunlight Blocking […]
It’s not a cult. Occurrences one doesn’t understand are often attributed to magic, miracles and/or bad actions by the promoters.
The Earth is warming, a result of we humans emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere faster than nature can consume. No matter how many times Mr Teach insists that it’s a natural Holocene warming period, it is not.
Over the past 50 years the Earth’s mean surface temperature has increased at 0.19 ±0.03 °C/decade (0.34 ±0.05 °F/decade). The Earth has warmed 1°F the past 50 years, and at the same rate will have warmed 2°F in the next 50 years. We know, we know… Mr Teach will argue, correctly, that humans can’t really notice a 2°F difference in ambient temperature. 59°F vs 61°F – pshaw! – who cares? What he ignores is that the mean (average) doesn’t account for the extremes in both location and time. For example a longer melt season for the Greenland ice sheet leads to more fresh water dumping into the North Atlantic.
Future generations may be forced to take actions with higher risks, such as this geoengineering effort, to slow warming. But the current consensus is that the risks are not worth the potential benefits.
Chicken Little Karen Man
Future generations may be forced to take actions with higher risks, such as this geoengineering effort, to slow warming. But the current consensus is that the risks are not worth the potential benefits.
And the current cult members want to stop the bad old warming by……
…In the meantime China, India, Asia et al plus Africa is saying…”Fuck you idiots. We want food, medicine, clothing, shelter… You know what you are destroying.”
In the meantime China, India and Africa is saying…. “Fuck you idiots, we want
Well put. You’ve changed my life.
But, I’ll close by saying that at this time the best way slow and eventually stop global warming is to reduce CO2 emissions. Recall that atmospheric CO2 has a long half-life (it stays in the atmosphere for 10s of years). CO2 is removed by multiple natural mechanism: oceans take up large amounts (hence the drop in ocean pH) by dissolution; green plants (on land and in the ocean) take up large amounts; over centuries CO2 can be incorporated into oceans plants/animals and accrete as sediment; CO2 can be very slowly incorporated as calcium carbonate (CaCO3) into rocks.
Of course, if one believes the current century or more of warming is natural, one has nothing to worry about, or to do!!
Chicken Little Karen Man
But, I’ll close by saying that at this time the best way slow and eventually stop global warming is to reduce CO2 emissions.z
Do you realize that if England sunk under the seas the net reeducation result would be unnoticeable.
This it best. Watch and educate yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-OX-ZNAN-I