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Science

Controversial Spraying, Sun-Dimming Method Aims To Curb Global Warming (cbsnews.com) 256

Scientists are proposing an ingenious but as-yet-unproven way to tackle climate change: spraying sun-dimming chemicals into the Earth's atmosphere. From a report: A fleet of 100 planes making 4,000 worldwide missions per year could help save the world from climate change. Also, it may be relatively cheap. That's the conclusion of a new peer-reviewed study in Environmental Research Letters. It's the stuff of science fiction. Planes spraying tiny sulphate particulates into the lower stratosphere, around 60,000 feet up. The idea is to help shield the Earth from just enough sunlight to help keep temperatures low. The researchers examined how practical and costly a hypothetical solar geoengineering project would be beginning 15 years from now. The aim would be to half the temperature increase caused by heat-trapping greenhouse gases. This method would mimic what large volcanoes do. In 1991, Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines. It was the second largest eruption of the 20th century, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). In total, the eruption injected 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide aerosols into the stratosphere. USGS said the Earth's lower atmosphere temperature dropped by approximately 1-degree Fahrenheit. The effect only lasted a couple of years because the sulfates eventually fell to Earth.
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Controversial Spraying, Sun-Dimming Method Aims To Curb Global Warming

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  • David Bowie was great in that movie.

  • Scorch the Sky (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "We don't know who struck first, us or them, but we know that it was us that scorched the sky."

    --Morpheus

  • by dwillden ( 521345 ) on Friday November 23, 2018 @03:40PM (#57689800) Homepage
    As if the mythical chemtrails rumor isn't hard enough to beat down, now they want thousands of planes spreading "mind control chemicals" world wide? The tinfoil hat crowd will go insane over this idea.
    • Came here to say the same thing.

      What they really need to do, to crank it over 9000, is to just modify passenger jets to do this. Best way will be to put the chemicals in the fuel.

    • by taustin ( 171655 )

      The tin foil hat crown is already insane. This will make zero different to them. (Which, I'd guess, is about as much positive difference as it will make to the environment.)

  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23, 2018 @03:43PM (#57689828)

    I can't be the only person thinking this... but I think we humans have hit a point where we can safely say injecting -more- chemicals into the environment should, at best, be a very last resort. Preferably, not on the table at all, ever.

  • > The effect only lasted a couple of years because the sulfates eventually fell to Earth.

    Did Big Pharma quietly fund this? They do love their lifetime subscriptions. This is right up their alley.

  • It's called a hack. Rather than fix the root problem, just work around it. With enough hacks, you arrive at an unmaintainable legacy system. The you have to build a new one.

    • Bang on. I really hate the "treat the symptoms, not the disease" approach so many people use. Addicts dying? Quick, take this to save your life, so you can get back to taking those awesome drugs again.
    • by Trogre ( 513942 )

      That's a terrible way to think of it.

      Yes, it is a hack. But, given that it is 100% impossible to fix the root problem in any meaningful way before global catastrophe, any band-aid solution that will buy us some time should be considered.

      • That man over there is going to destroy the world. We must kill him now.

        What's wrong with that? Among other things, a false assumption, same as your false assumption of global catastrophe.

        • Among other things, a false assumption, same as your false assumption of global catastrophe

          Like the false assumption that the earth orbits the sun, when it is obvious that the sun orbits the earth - just look up!
          Or, the assumption that you are not an idiot.

    • We know what the root problem is. We don't have a fix though, one that is technically, economically, socially and politically viable. It looks like renewables, new nukes, or reducing our energy usage might not cut it unless we seriously step up our efforts... which will come with increased social and economic upheaval. This might be a relatively cheap "solution" that buys us some much needed time at least. Worth a study or even a limited trial. Of course the danger of this solution is people demanding
  • by RyanFenton ( 230700 ) on Friday November 23, 2018 @04:14PM (#57690004)

    This sounds about as reasonable as the plot to those movies.

    So... we pollute the atmosphere in a way that causes heat to be trapped due to a buildup of carbon dioxide and similar greenhouse gasses.

    The solution would seem to be to rely on less polluting energy generation mechanisms, since the fossil fuels are inherently less cost effective over time anyway.

    But this idea seems to be to ... filter out the sunlight - and prevent us from being able to use any other energy source but fossil fuels until we run out, and have black skies, I guess?

    You know how... evil that process sounds, right?

    Like, cartoonishly evil.

    Ryan Fenton

    • by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Friday November 23, 2018 @05:32PM (#57690342)

      The solution would seem to be to rely on less polluting energy generation mechanisms, since the fossil fuels are inherently less cost effective over time anyway.

      The problem is there's a very vocal and politically active group which opposes the one power generation solution we already have which solves the problem - nuclear power.

      Environmentalists suffer from what I call Just Right-itis. The insistence that there is just the right amount of global warming occurring. Enough that mankind is in mortal danger, so we have to take drastic action quickly. But not so much that we need to switch to a different power source ASAP. Instead there's just the right amount of global warming so that we can spend decades developing completely new power sources, meanwhile continuing to burn fossil fuels thus exacerbating the problem.

      It's like finding out a asteroid will hit the Earth in a few decades and wipe out all life on it. But then staunchly opposing deflecting the asteroid using existing technology which is already capable of dealing with it, and instead insisting that completely new technology be developed to deal with the asteroid. This reasoning only makes sense if you value your pet technology over the survival of life on Earth. Their primary goal isn't stopping and arresting global warming. It's using it as a vehicle to drive the transition to renewable power, even if that means risking all life on Earth.

      Nuclear power doesn't have to be the end game. The #1 priority should be getting off fossil fuels. We can do that with nuclear, buying ourselves decades if not centuries to develop renewables and batteries until they're in a state which can handle base load. Then we can switch from nuclear to renewables. If you oppose this most rational course of action, then you force us to start coming up with more and more desperate ideas to stave off disaster, like polluting the atmosphere in order to save it.

      • While I agree with you in principle, there are practical problems with nuclear power.

        The first is that they usually end up a lot more expensive to build, run, and decommission than estimated in the planning stage; partly due to stringent regulation, as well as the required expertise. Nuclear does need strong oversight, because it's way too tempting for operators to start cutting corners to save operating costs, and we have multiple examples of nuclear contamination when that happened. Yes, new designs are a

      • The problem is there's a very vocal and politically active group which opposes the one power generation solution we already have which solves the problem - nuclear power.

        Stop lying, it makes you a liar. That's not even the most workable solution.

        Nuclear power doesn't have to be the end game. The #1 priority should be getting off fossil fuels. We can do that with nuclear,

        but only if we're total dumbfucks since that actually costs more than doing it with renewables. Since we live under capitalism, you have to account for the cost. And renewables are cheaper than nuclear. So why would you even suggest nuclear?

        • There is a significant difference between baseload nuclear generation and renewable generation. If you include the cost of storing energy for nights, cloudy, or windless days then the economics of nuclear power make a great deal more sense.

          I'm not saying you are wrong. I'm saying it's an apples and oranges comparison if you only look at the dollars-per-megawatt number.

          • There is a significant difference between baseload nuclear generation and renewable generation.

            *ahem* [google.com]

            I'm not saying you are wrong. I'm saying it's an apples and oranges comparison if you only look at the dollars-per-megawatt number.

            We're getting to the point where solar+battery is cheaper than nuclear, which eliminates any imagined relevant difference, so who cares?

    • So... we pollute the atmosphere in a way that causes heat to be trapped due to a buildup of carbon dioxide and similar greenhouse gasses.

      We have an industrial revolution and greatly increase life span and quality of life? Yes.

      The solution would seem to be to rely on less polluting energy generation mechanisms, since the fossil fuels are inherently less cost effective over time anyway.

      If fossil fuels are inherently less cost effective over time anyway then you have nothing to worry about. No need for energy gestapos.

      But this idea seems to be to ... filter out the sunlight - and prevent us from being able to use any other energy source but fossil fuels until we run out, and have black skies, I guess?

      The idea is to have a technological solution - or at least, tool to push things in the right direction - for a fiendishly difficult problem that actually can't simply be solved with cartoonish mandates.

    • Highlander II levels of evil.

  • ... the Concorde. With high sulfur fuel.

    • Now there's a good use for the marine fuels that will soon be banned because of high sulphur content. Can we make a Concorde fly on nr. 6 bunker fuel?
  • by Elias Israel ( 182882 ) <eli@promanage-inc.com> on Friday November 23, 2018 @04:22PM (#57690040)
    Is "controversial" how the headline writer decided to say "unfathomably stupid"? https://science.nasa.gov/scien... [nasa.gov]
  • My plants don't like sulfates. They told me so.
  • We have a hugely complex system that we don't really nderstand. Some people think that human activity may be influencing that system, although absolutely none of the predictive models we have actually work. So...the answer to a non-understood influence on a non-understood system is: muck with the system some more.

    How about we first invest in climate monitoring, and try to understand the whole system? If global warming is such an important issue, why is the number of monitoring stations monotonically decreas

    • by shess ( 31691 ) on Friday November 23, 2018 @06:49PM (#57690660) Homepage

      We have a hugely complex system that we don't really nderstand. Some people think that human activity may be influencing that system, although absolutely none of the predictive models we have actually work. So...the answer to a non-understood influence on a non-understood system is: muck with the system some more.

      How about we first invest in climate monitoring, and try to understand the whole system? If global warming is such an important issue, why is the number of monitoring stations monotonically decreasing, especially in regions like the Arctic?

      So, if you were in a car which was heading towards a concrete wall, and someone said "Hit the brakes!", you'd say "No, first we need to be sure which part of the wall we're going to hit"?

      I mean, yes, we don't have 100% precise models for climate change. That doesn't mean we should immediately give up. We don't have 100% precise models of how a commercial airline will fly from LAX to EWR, and yet dozens of planes manage to complete that route each day. Crazy, isn't it? It's almost like we could just work on the biggest emitters up front, and assume that in the future someone will figure out how to deal with the more subtle sources.

      • you're confused.

        we don't even have 20% accurate models for climate change. I've been following the models for 25 years, they're bullshits and useless.

        how about we just stop carbon pollution instead. I'm actually more concerned about ocean acidification and near term health issues from breathing radioisotopes of coal.

  • Well, I hear babies will taste the best.

  • Sincerely,

    Tesla owners
  • What about all that fossil fuel being burned to put the sulfates up there in the first place?
  • Expelling CO2 into the atmosphere faster than the rest of the system can take it up still has dire consequences. Ocean acidification, for example. If that worsens, anything that needs a shell to live is going to die off. That includes the base of the food web - coral and plankton. That will happen no matter how much sunlight you block.

    So no, there is no substitute for a stable climate, and the wealth the rich will hoard from causing the decline will not help even them in the end.

  • by gijoel ( 628142 ) on Friday November 23, 2018 @05:21PM (#57690298)
    So what happens if China/Russia/US... etc suspects that their devastating drought/floods/etc. are the result of these sulfur spraying planes. I imagine a lot of them will be 'accidentally' shot down, but only if they could be bothered to want peace.
  • ... don't get started with the chem trails consiparcy theory.
  • Oh sure ... then a huge volcano will erupt and we'll all be surfing glaciers.
  • We must try these... shades...

  • by jimbrooking ( 1909170 ) on Friday November 23, 2018 @09:43PM (#57691150)

    Any thoughts about what this might do to those who have invested in solar energy production like homeowners with PVCs on their roofs and Tesla's PowerPack installation in South Australia?

    Seems like terraforming Earth is just begging for unintended consequences.

  • by spiritplumber ( 1944222 ) on Saturday November 24, 2018 @12:32AM (#57691538) Homepage
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Literally the plot of the game (If you ever wondered where Snowpiercer came from).
  • Careful (Score:2, Insightful)

    My usual warning: be careful with amelioration efforts lest you accidentally induce another ice age, which will kill billions in a few years, not cause mild difficulties moving in from the coasts over a century.

    Ice ages can come on in a year or two -- you just nee enough snow and cool temps so the snow pack doesn't melt in summer one year.

    • My usual warning: be careful with amelioration efforts lest you accidentally induce another ice age,

      This is an ice age. We want another one.

  • by LordHighExecutioner ( 4245243 ) on Saturday November 24, 2018 @03:22AM (#57691820)
    Just after the last drop of sulphate has been sprayed, a big volcano will start erupting, throwing the world into a new glacial age.
  • enough said.

  • These people scare me much more than "climate change" ever will.

  • The lefties don't like any climate problem solution that doesn't put them in charge of the economy and allow them to dictate how everyone has to live their lives...

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