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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
 Posted - 03/16/2009 : 07:01:48
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This article got me thinking about this particular solution to global warming:
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/313/2?rss=1
A Hitch in Plans for "Sunshade Earth"
It might make for gorgeous sunsets and help to cool the planet, but seeding Earth's stratosphere with dust particles called aerosols has a cost. A researcher has found that the aerosols could block part of the sunlight collected by solar panels for heat and electricity--in some cases by significant amounts--thereby compromising an important source of green energy.
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IMHO seeding the atmosphere with aerosols to cool the planet is a really friggin' BAD idea. And that opinion has little to do with the issues with solar power (I also don't believe ground based solar can ever significantly fill our energy needs, so that point's moot). I'm thinking nobody has a very good idea what all the effects will be of seeding the atmosphere like that. Given the comlplexities of the planetary climate system, how could they really know what will happen until the do it? And then it's too late. It's too much like climate engineering by trial and error. Unless something really horrible is happening, like a runaway greenhouse ala Venus, then no thanks.
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-Chaloobi
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On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
Posted - 03/16/2009 : 07:44:57 [Permalink]
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| any system that merely lowers the temperature does not address the problem of the acidification of the sea |
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 03/16/2009 : 09:49:32 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by On fire for Christ
any system that merely lowers the temperature does not address the problem of the acidification of the sea
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True enough. I'm thinking that's going to be the really tough one to fix. How the heck do you scrub CO2 out of the atmosphere??? And if you come up with some process capable of reducing global CO2 levels, then how do you keep from going to far, interupting the carbon cycle, and killing all the plants? Scary stuff. |
-Chaloobi
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 03/16/2009 : 19:30:19 [Permalink]
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I'm against the implementation of most of these "mega engineering" approaches (including the dumping of iron into the oceans) to fixing MMGW. They are just too dangerous, and cannot be tried out in the laboratory in advance with any real expectation of accuracy.
What if it turned out that those aerosols stayed in the atmosphere much longer than expected, and/or had a much greater cooling effect than expected? A real Ice Age would hardly be better than MMGW!
I think we need to focus first on what's adding to the problem now, and stop making so much greenhouse gas. Sequestering atmospheric CO2 also makes sense, mega engineering or not. Other mega engineering approaches should be researched in the meantime, but only for use in a dire, runaway greenhouse scenario.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 03/16/2009 19:31:14 |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 03/17/2009 : 01:20:17 [Permalink]
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Any geoengineering we undertake, imo, has to be controlable and rapidly reversable.
Aerosols are probably one of the worst geoengineering ideas out there.
The best concept for reducing sunlight to the earth's surface is a couple of giant clouds of mirrors, in orbit, whose orientation can be controlled in order to control the amoutn of light reflected.
As for CO2 scrubbers... possible with current technology, and probably a good idea. It would have to be implemented on a massive scale (probably with equally massive cost) to have an impact, but it could be done.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 03/17/2009 : 02:34:03 [Permalink]
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I don't know enough about the science to comment, but one word comes to mind: "Photosynthesis."
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 03/17/2009 : 03:30:55 [Permalink]
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You could reduce CO2 with photosynthesis, but you are talking about growing a huge number of photosynthetic organisms (trees, weeds, phytoplankton, whatever). In order to make such a project practical you'd have to limit the number of species you plant/grow. Encouraging one (or a small number of) species in favor of all the rest would have an unknown and unpredictable impact on the local ecosystem you were working in.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
Posted - 03/17/2009 : 06:06:02 [Permalink]
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| I think one of the ideas being thrown around was huge amounts of algea. That seemed potentially disastrous to me too. |
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Sun Shield Earth to Battle Climate Warming
