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This is a solution for climate change that's been tossed around for a while in various forms. I think it may just be one of the most viable thanks to SpaceX br
by eloff 4y ago
This is a solution for climate change that's been tossed around for a while in various forms.
I think it may just be one of the most viable thanks to SpaceX bringing down the cost of space launch. With starship this might just be one of the cheapest solutions. Certainty cheaper than building seawalls around all our coastal cities - something that no reduction in emissions will save us from now.
To be clear, we have to reduce emissions, but it's obvious now to me that it will be too little, too late. We'll need something more radical as well. Currently emissions are still increasing and the rate of emissions is even accelerating still. We're pretty fucked overa long time span.
- ncmncm 4y agoEach dollar spent on window dressing is a dollar that cannot be spent on the actual problem. But disaster comes on just as fast, however much you make it look like it is not. Blocking sunlight, by whatever means, is a disastrously bad idea.
- eloff 4y agoIt's not window dressing, it address the symptoms, not the cause. But it's the symptoms that are causing the problem for us, it's enough to address them. We need to buy time to solve the root cause. Why would blocking sunlight be a bad idea?
- ncmncm 4y agoBlocking sunlight takes off pressure to stop driving up CO2. Rising CO2 is acidifying the oceans, something shade helps not at all. Resulting ocean ecosystem collapse eliminates access to protein for a large fraction of humanity. Mass famine provokes global war. War halts sun blocking activity. Temperature shoots up faster than ever. Furthermore: rising CO2 is already interfering with cognition. Shade helps with that not at all. Money is fungible. Money spent on shade is money not spent on addressing the cause of multiple identified problems that shade does not help. How much more heat forcing do you suppose would be driven by burning enough rocket fuel to put millions of tons of crap into orbit? The whole prospect is BS, but it exerts a sick fascination that is harmful by itself, as it makes it seem like disaster can be averted any time with no fundamental change.
- beanjuice 4y agoWhat if it wasn't blocking ALL sunlight, but just some of the heat-producing infrared portion?
- ncmncm 4y agoMakes no difference. The point is that devoting enough resources to blocking insolation diverts those resources from measures that address the root problem.