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Hey - to borrow your metaphor and expand - Bandaids help heal wounds, and prevent infections. Of course, we know that sulfur will introduce plenty of anticipat
by abakker 2y ago
Hey - to borrow your metaphor and expand - Bandaids help heal wounds, and prevent infections.
Of course, we know that sulfur will introduce plenty of anticipated negative consequences. Acid rain, for one, does change ecosystems (though in some areas, this can actually increase soil fertility).
The question really is what risks - known and unknown - can we sign up for in order to effect giving us more time before hot days just start killing more and more people? it feels very relevant to have a reasoned conversation about the different kinds of risks, and to spend research time on them (as opposed to armchair time).
- jaggs 2y agoI hear what you're saying, but the problem is all the time we spend on doing something completely insane (I'm sorry, but blotting out the source of the planet's photosynthesis is truly mad for so many reasons) we could be doubling down on reducing emissions, planting more carbon sinks, and shifting the planet onto a more secure footing. It's like that mad billionaire in Don't Look Up, with his mini atom bombs. It's never going to work, but it makes lots of money in the meantime. Just like mechanical carbon capture is doing right now.
- abakker 2y agoAgree, but only somewhat. It's not clear that we are actually short of sunlight to grow a lot of plants in a lot of places. Sure, places with short growing seasons would have less yield, but, cooling the planet would also make more equatorial latitudes a bit easier to farm in for some crops by reducing the irrigation needs. My personal favorite geo-engineering approach, though, is iron-seeding parts of the pacific to create large plankton blooms. to me, this seems substantially less risky.