Science Dim the sun to stop global warming

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https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/23/health/sun-dimming-aerosols-global-warming-intl-scli/index.html

(CNN)Scientists are proposing an ingenious but as-yet-unproven way to tackle climate change: spraying sun-dimming chemicals into the Earth's atmosphere.
The research by scientists at Harvard and Yale universities, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, proposes using a technique known as stratospheric aerosol injection, which they say could cut the rate of global warming in half.
The technique would involve spraying large amounts of sulfate particles into the Earth's lower stratosphere at altitudes as high as 12 miles. The scientists propose delivering the sulfates with specially designed high-altitude aircraft, balloons or large naval-style guns.
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Stratospheric aerosol injection would involve spraying sulfate particles into the Earth's stratosphere at altitudes as high as 12 miles.
Despite the technology being undeveloped and with no existing aircraft suitable for adaptation, the researchers say that "developing a new, purpose-built tanker with substantial payload capabilities would neither be technologically difficult nor prohibitively expensive."
They estimate the total cost of launching a hypothetical system in 15 years' time at around $3.5 billion, with running costs of $2.25 billion a year over a 15-year period.
The report does, however, acknowledge that the technique is purely hypothetical.

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"We make no judgment about the desirability of SAI," the report states. "We simply show that a hypothetical deployment program commencing 15 years hence, while both highly uncertain and ambitious, would indeed be technically possible from an engineering perspective. It would also be remarkably inexpensive."
The researchers also acknowledge potential risks: coordination between multiple countries in both hemispheres would be required, and stratospheric aerosol injection techniques could jeopardize crop yields, lead to droughts or cause extreme weather.
The proposals also don't address the issue of rising greenhouse gas emissions, which are a leading cause of global warming.

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And despite the conviction of the report's authors, other experts were skeptical.
"From the point of view of climate economics, solar radiation management is still a much worse solution than greenhouse gas emissions: more costly and much more risky over the long run," said Philippe Thalmann of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, an expert in the economics of climate change.
David Archer of the Department of Geophysical Science at the University of Chicago said, "The problem with engineering climate in this way is that it's only a temporary Band-Aid covering a problem that will persist essentially forever, actually hundreds of thousands of years for fossil fuel CO2 to finally go away naturally.
"It will be tempting to continue to procrastinate on cleaning up our energy system, but we'd be leaving the planet on a form of life-support. If a future generation failed to pay their climate bill they would get all of our warming all at once."
Let's just inject even more chemicals into the air, that will definitely fix things and not make them worse!
Only the best from your favorite fake news station!
 
God isn't real. :neckbeard:

And men "play God" all the time, through controlling plants (agriculture), animals (farming), manipulating the environment (fossil fuels, nuclear power), etcetera.

*tips fedora*

Regardless of whether or not God exists, there is still a huge gulf of difference between farming and wanting to use potentially toxic chemicals to literally block out the sun. The former is simply growing food and raising livestock. The latter is the epitome of hubris.

Also, excessive use of fossil fuels and nuclear energy is a prime example of why we shouldn't play God. We have over-used fossil fuels to the point where the climate is changing so rapidly it is leading to a potential mass extinction, and the United States alone has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world six times over, to say nothing of other nuclear powers and even civilian use of nuclear energy can be dangerous if one is not careful, just ask the folks who lived near Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Honestly, we should be stepping away from fossil fuels as much as reasonably possible and investing in green energy such as solar and wind power.
 
Wait, the solution to meddling with the atmosphere is more meddling with the atmosphere?
 
You bitches just need to learn to praise the Sun.
 
Spraying sulfates into the air can't possibly go wrong. Sure glad we have "all the best people" in our highest levels of government working towards a collective goal to save all of us.
 
This is an old idea. Basically put out the same stuff as volcanoes since they make the Earth cooler, but no one knows for sure what bad side effects there would be.
 
Hmm, this particular line from the actual article is interesting:

We here make no judgment about the desirability of SAI. We simply show that a hypothetical deployment program commencing 15 years hence, while both highly uncertain and ambitious, would indeed be technically possible from an engineering perspective. It would also be remarkably inexpensive.

Now, you can interpret this all kinds of different ways, but what I'm getting is: "We didn't say it wasn't stupid. We're just saying that if you're determined to do something this stupid, you could do it and probably pretty cheap."

I welcome your :optimistic: ratings.
 
THis was basically the premise behind Snowpiercer.

"We dimmed the sun, but couldn't reverse the chemicals, resulting in a decades long ice-age that destroyed humanity."

So they say they can do it, well, how is it reversed?

This plan isn't much better than "Use nukes to fire off ST Helens, Fuji, and a few other volcanoes..."
 
I recall a semicrazy plan to terraform Venus by putting a bunch of fancy umbrellas in orbit to block the sun out. That seems like it would accomplish the Earth goal just as well and would be a lot easier to take down when you didn't want it any more.
 
Hmm, this particular line from the actual article is interesting:



Now, you can interpret this all kinds of different ways, but what I'm getting is: "We didn't say it wasn't stupid. We're just saying that if you're determined to do something this stupid, you could do it and probably pretty cheap."

I welcome your :optimistic: ratings.
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That's what happens when you use fuckoff big rockets to make Earth orbit farther from the sun to combat global warming.

If we had those fuckoff big rockets than we could do this shit way better by putting mirrors in space which will reflect only infrared and UV rays which cut down on skin cancer while cooling the planet.

At what point do we simply accept that global warming is inevitable and plan accordingly?

That's what this is, duh. Can't warm up the planet if you put enough aerosols there. Geoengineering is the only way to save us.
 
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