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Stopping climate change isn't even hard, just place a large solar sail on a sun synchronous orbit to block part of the sun's energy from reaching Earth.
by 101404 7y ago
Stopping climate change isn't even hard, just place a large solar sail on a sun synchronous orbit to block part of the sun's energy from reaching Earth.
- lolc 7y agoNow I'd like to know what you consider hard if launching a solar sail is not.
- 101404 7y agoLet me reword that: it's do-able with current technology and at an affordable cost. Such a solar sail can be extremely thin, just needs to be reflective. So even hundreds of square km of surface are manageable.
- PeterisP 7y agoMass change of human behavior is one option for solving climate change, but IMHO doing that takes much, much more coordination and effort, and is less likely to succeed than a "apollo project" to launch a lot of foil pieces / chaff in proper orbit to achieve a slight shading of the sun.
- 101404 7y agoI agree. Changing human behavior/culture is more expensive, takes more time, and is less likely to succeed. I disagree on the foil pieces in orbit. Sure, that would be much easier than a single piece. But it would be impossible to correct or reduce the amount of "glitter" once it is in an orbit. A single piece (maybe spaced out with holes or cuts) can be removed or reduced as necessary.
- owl57 7y agoI fear the opposite. The Apollo project is a symbol of the era when the wealthiest states of the world were obsessed with rockets. They are probably more interested in mass psychology now.
- muzani 7y agoIt's not simply changing behavior. We're also telling people to cut down on things that are making money. What's worse is that the people who got rich on fossil fuels are telling the newbies to stop using them. There's plenty of incentive to just have people set up a solar sail. Plenty of people would rather live in an ice age than give up their factories.
- gpm 7y agoColonizing mars. It takes more mass and the mass has to be "smart" instead of just some dumb sails with some station keeping thrusters attached. This is actually one of the best reasons to support SpaceX in my opinion. They are doing the R&D needed to provide a viable solution to global warming at a reasonable cost as a positive externality. Source on sun-shade working at 20 million tonnes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_sunshade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_sunshade Sources on SpaceX intending to be able to launch far Cargo than that every year (note: I'm lazy so I didn't find a source that did the multiplication of 100,000 tons * 1000 ships for you): https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/09/spacex-plans-how-elon-musk-see-life-on-mars.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/09/spacex-plans-how-elon-musk-s...
- jessaustin 7y agoThe ultimate weapon of imperialist terror! Why haven't we built this already?! "It's most unfortunate, and not only for your farmers, that you've chosen not to have sunlight this year... perhaps you should reconsider our demands?"
- muzani 7y agoRelated: https://news.yahoo.com/bill-gates-backing-plan-to-stop-climate-change-by-blocking-out-the-sun-183601437.html https://news.yahoo.com/bill-gates-backing-plan-to-stop-clima...
- acheron 7y agoIan Fleming’s James Bond in Sunlight is Forever
- JdeBP 7y agoIt's close to the plot of several real novels. Ben Bova's Powersat. Roger MacBride Allen's Farside Cannon.
- 101404 7y agoNow I want to watch that movie!