Geoengineering To Cool the Earth Becoming Thinkable

johkir writes "As early as 1965, when Al Gore was a freshman in college, a panel of distinguished environmental scientists warned President Lyndon B. Johnson that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels might cause 'marked changes in climate' that 'could be deleterious.' Yet the scientists did not so much as mention the possibility of reducing emissions. Instead they considered one idea: 'spreading very small reflective particles' over about five million square miles of ocean, so as to bounce about 1 percent more sunlight back to space — 'a wacky geoengineering solution.' In the decades since, geoengineering ideas never died, but they did get pushed to the fringe — they were widely perceived by scientists and environmentalists alike as silly and even immoral attempts to avoid addressing the root of the problem of global warming. Three recent developments have brought them back into the mainstream." We've discussed some pretty strange ideas in the geoengineering line over the last few years.

Comments

I'm in favor of a space shield

[Anonymous Coward]

To act like sunglasses... or moving the Earth back from the Sun a little bit.

Re:Perhaps?

[CRCulver]

Not driving alone in your own car everywhere you go is socialist COMMUNISM. We don't need that here in the real America.

Re:No they didn't

[morgan_greywolf]

The lesson to be learned is that you do not rely on the popular media for scientific reporting.

Agreed. That's why I always get my scientific reporting from more reliable non-mainstream sources like this one.

Re:Like something out of Robinson's work

[sleigher]

Don't listen to that guy. What he really meant is there is no try. Only do or do not.

Re:Like something out of Robinson's work

[Beorytis]

Such systems of poison storage causes collapses of the predators first

That's it, then... Time to go vegetarian.

Re:Like something out of Robinson's work

[cthulu_mt]

I propose a Slashdot essay contest. Eleven words or less; the winner recieves a lifetime supply of soap.

The protocol for terraforming experiments

[Torodung]

This in from the future of an alternate timeline: The standard protocol for terraforming experiments such as these is to always have a backup planet, with complete infrastructure in place, in case something goes wrong.

I don't think we're going to meet that requirement for many decades to come. Experimenting with global systems is ill advised at best until we have somewhere else to go in the event of a failure.

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Toro