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Geoengineering research needs to happen ASAP if we care about preventing runaway positive feedback effects. Calcium carbonate in upper atmosphere is a very prom

Geoengineering research needs to happen ASAP if we care about preventing runaway positive feedback effects. Calcium carbonate in upper atmosphere is a very promising solution. So is bringing back containership ship tracks via fuel additives or salt-based marine cloud brightening. The unknown unknown risks of these solutions is not a good reason for ignoring the known risk of unarrested heat imbalances. And it is a fantasy to think that governments will stop fossil fuels consumption to the degrees needed. Clean energy is the future, but we need a stop gap before the permafrost melts. Stopping fossil fuels isn’t about punishing evil mankind for consumption, it is about stabilizing a climate. And there are other more politically feasible ways of accomplishing this need.

epistasis 2y ago
The funny thing is we have all the technology to stop climate change today, and it's cheaper than burning fossil fuels. So I suspect that geoengineering will face the same problems: a political party that refused to acknowledge the problem and deal with it, because it's politically incorrect to acknowledge climate change.
- dr_dshiv 2y ago
  I don’t think so. At the end of the day, I think people are pragmatic. It’s not about not believing in climate change, it’s about money. What is the tech that allows us to stop climate change today?
  - epistasis 2y ago
    Look at Texas, pretty much the only energy system that is capitalist with people trying to make money by producing energy cheaper than the competition. It's allllll solar and batteries going in, because it's the cheapest energy source. If people were pragmatic and cared about money, that's what would be happening everywhere. Instead, most utilities make more money when energy costs more, so they go with the old fossil fuel tech and keep old infrastructure in place. If you're on HN and don't know how cheap renewables and storage are, that's a really bad sign, and proof that people are not very pragmatic and fundamentally lazy. There's a massive technological shift going on and nobody even seems know about it.
    - dr_dshiv 2y ago
      Renewables are getting built at a massive rate. Doubling every 3 years. It’s not a replacement yet, though. That’s because existing energy infrastructure is cheaper (eg gas), as is, than replacing it. Don’t be mean, we are after the same thing. Further, fundamental laziness leads to pragmatism. If you really want to be lazy, you do the cheap and easy thing.

epistasis 2y ago

The funny thing is we have all the technology to stop climate change today, and it's cheaper than burning fossil fuels. So I suspect that geoengineering will face the same problems: a political party that refused to acknowledge the problem and deal with it, because it's politically incorrect to acknowledge climate change.

dr_dshiv 2y ago
I don’t think so. At the end of the day, I think people are pragmatic. It’s not about not believing in climate change, it’s about money. What is the tech that allows us to stop climate change today?
- epistasis 2y ago
  Look at Texas, pretty much the only energy system that is capitalist with people trying to make money by producing energy cheaper than the competition. It's allllll solar and batteries going in, because it's the cheapest energy source. If people were pragmatic and cared about money, that's what would be happening everywhere. Instead, most utilities make more money when energy costs more, so they go with the old fossil fuel tech and keep old infrastructure in place. If you're on HN and don't know how cheap renewables and storage are, that's a really bad sign, and proof that people are not very pragmatic and fundamentally lazy. There's a massive technological shift going on and nobody even seems know about it.
  - dr_dshiv 2y ago
    Renewables are getting built at a massive rate. Doubling every 3 years. It’s not a replacement yet, though. That’s because existing energy infrastructure is cheaper (eg gas), as is, than replacing it. Don’t be mean, we are after the same thing. Further, fundamental laziness leads to pragmatism. If you really want to be lazy, you do the cheap and easy thing.