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US Scientists Launch World's Biggest Solar Geoengineering Study (theguardian.com)

In what will be the world's biggest solar geoengineering program to date, U.S. scientists part of the $20 million Harvard University project are going to send aerosol injections 20km (~12.4 miles) into the earth's stratosphere "to establish whether the technology can safely simulate the atmospheric cooling effects of a volcanic eruption," The Guardian reports. From the report: Scientists hope to complete two small-scale dispersals of first water and then calcium carbonate particles by 2022. Future tests could involve seeding the sky with aluminum oxide -- or even diamonds. Janos Pasztor, Ban Ki-moon's assistant climate chief at the UN who now leads a geoengineering governance initiative, said that the Harvard scientists would only disperse minimal amounts of compounds in their tests, under strict university controls. Geoengineering advocates stress that any attempt at a solar tech fix is years away and should be viewed as a compliment to -- not a substitute for -- aggressive emissions reductions action. But the Harvard team, in a promotional video for the project, suggest a redirection of one percent of current climate mitigation funds to geoengineering research, and argue that the planet could be covered with a solar shield for as little as $10 billion a year. Some senior UN climate scientists view such developments with alarm, fearing a cash drain from proven mitigation technologies such as wind and solar energy, to ones carrying the potential for unintended disasters. If lab tests are positive, the experiment would then be replicated with a limestone compound which the researchers believe will neither absorb solar or terrestrial radiation, nor deplete the ozone layer.

3 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. Dangerous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is a massive waste of money, and it's dangerous. When you move past the "adjustments" (fabrications) to climate data, there's no evidence the Earth is getting warmer. In fact, the Earth has been cooling slightly for the past few decades. Climate scientists have stated that sea ice is decoupled from global average temperates when they said that Antarctic sea ice would grow as the Earth warms. In the longer term, we're likely to descend back into another ice age, based on natural cycles. We actually need the Earth to be warm in order to support human civilization. Accelerating the process of global cooling is probably going to be incredibly damaging to human life. It's a waste of money because it's attempting to solve a problem that doesn't exist. It's also extremely dangerous. Let's not destroy human civilization because we believed the global warming lies. I'm certain I'll be modded down by moderators who are eager to censor my views, but that just underscores how Slashdot readers and scientists don't care about the truth and would prefer to silence it. The unadjusted data can be found and examined, but it's easier to most people silence the truth instead of accepting that they believe and have been promoting lies.

  2. Re: Trump has a plan to fix it quicker and more pe by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Nuclear warfare has been pretty much inevitable since the start of the cold war. That's a genie that humans won't be willing to put in a bottle because people are stupid as shit.

    The "most imminent threat" is not North Korea. Any N. Korean nuclear strike would not cause crippling damage, and the retaliation would be pretty quick, and completely remove NK as a threat.

    Both Kim Jong Un and Trump are in a contest to see who can take the title for Crazy Leader with Bad Hair - and Trump, at this point, is clearly in the lead. Trump has surrounded himself with people who will profit greatly from any war, as well as jeebus freaks who believe it's their manifest destiny to start armageddon. Of the two, Trump is the clear and present danger. But he's also the world's laughingstock.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  3. Re: Trump has a plan to fix it quicker and more pe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Christians aren't killing people or threatening to use nuclear weapons on people who disagree with them. North Korea is actively developing long range nuclear missiles and everyone knows it. Muslims are continually plotting terror attacks against western nations as we sadly saw in London. Trump is busy trying to unite Republicans over health care, tax reform, and infrastructure. And you're an idiot.