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The giant sunshade idea is much more expensive and fragile than relatively dumb alternatives such as spraying SO2 or water into the atmosphere to deflect sunlig
by shoo 6y ago
The giant sunshade idea is much more expensive and fragile than relatively dumb alternatives such as spraying SO2 or water into the atmosphere to deflect sunlight, I don't really understand how sunshade could be argued as a "better" solution.
Re "band-aid" -- I agree -- all solutions of this form that aim to partially mitigate one unwanted consequences of rising CO2 without addressing other consequences or halting the rise of CO2 are unlikely to result in a stable solution & instead just buy time.
- NateEag 6y agoIf the sunshade has undesirable consequences, you can just move it. It's much harder to undo terraforming attempts.
- unchocked 6y agoA sunshade doesn't involve chemical modification of our atmosphere, and its effects are reversible (it's a solar sail and can change its orbit when required). As to expense, it's an opportunity for the space industry to contribute to solving the #1 problem on Earth. The Starship fleet is being built anyway. As a fringe benefit, if made of thin-film photovoltaics a sunshade could generate ~300TW of electricity. Compare that to current terrestrial consumption of 17TW. It creates enough energy and in-space manufacturing capacity to unlock the solar system.
- dr_dshiv 6y agoBuying time seems like a good idea