Because even industrial pollution at a modern scale is small potatoes compared to the possible consequences of honest-to-god intentional geoengineering. The ris

Because even industrial pollution at a modern scale is small potatoes compared to the possible consequences of honest-to-god intentional geoengineering. The risks here are in a completely different league. We recently found out that the Amazon rain forest depends on winds that carry nutrients from the Bodele depression [1]. The Amazon rainforest is nutrient limited by the phosphorus it gets from the other side of the planet. Obviously the depression is way above sea level and isn’t at risk from artificial flooding in the northern sahara, but that should illustrate the scale of the consequences we’re dealing with: if we fuck up even a little bit, it could mean ecosystem collapse in the Mediterranean or beyond. [1] https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/7279/bodele-depression-dust-feeds-amazon https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/7279/bodele-depress...