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If you really want to read how horrible and scary the idea of geo-engineering can get, read these two papers: https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/30/4/article
by cyber_kinetist 11mo ago
If you really want to read how horrible and scary the idea of geo-engineering can get, read these two papers:
https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/30/4/article-p3_1.xml?language=en&srsltid=AfmBOorh9WsNUhJygv-hXQCyXgeWJ77JJZ-ww97splOzIAK9RTpgK1jp https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/30/4/article-p3_1.xml?l...
https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/31/1/article-p3_1.xml?language=en&srsltid=AfmBOorjgzn6YBiEHKV-Crb-rQ0eyphQ2AptYb8_JxkOkN2dI5Ja7dsQ https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/31/1/article-p3_1.xml?l...
It's a wild read, that not only explains how this idea is technically horrible - he also analyzes the social and psychological effects this would have on humanity, and it's harrowing:
- We will be unable to see blue skies anymore, it will simply become white. This will be a traumatic event for humanity, and would have consequences beyond our understanding. Also, sunsets will be much more bloody-red, and we wouldn't be able to see the stars as clearly as before.
- The nature of aerosol deployments is that once we start this to combat global warming, corporations and governments will just rely on this instead of also reducing CO2 emissions. So as time passes, an exponentially larger amount of aerosols would be needed to block out the sun at every year, which makes the side-effects of geo-engineering grow immensely over time.
- Once aerosols hit a limit, then there lies the termination shock - once we "give" up on emitting aerosols due to it becoming exponentially expensive to maintain over time, the Earth's temperature will suddenly shoot up at unprecedented rates, quick rendering the planet inhabitable for humanity. His analogies to Freud's theory of repression is apt - we constantly repress our traumatic thoughts with stopgap measures, until the fantasy becomes too expensive to maintain and enter into the fully destructive phase.
- helsinki8 11mo agoIf you want to read how horrible and scary the status quo is, just look at any scientific projection of current trends in 10 or 50 years. > corporations and governments will just rely on this instead of also reducing CO2 emissions They already rely on people wanting cheap gasoline and cheap beef and high profits to the companies that give generous political donations. So, no change in actual behavior. Geo-engineering is already happening and has been for decades. It's just been as a side effect of industry. Doing a little bit of intentional work to counteract that is a reasonable response. Hoping that tomorrow everyone wakes up and decides to do the right thing about emissions is a fantasy.