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

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.

3 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Can't stop carbon when paid by the tar sands oil by denzacar · · Score: 4, Informative

    Author of the "study" is Gernot Wagner, an economist and a co-director of Harvard's Solar Geoengineering Research Program - with David W. Keith.

    Dave-boy also likes spraying sulfuric acid in the air as a solution for global warming, while arguing that more windmills will cause "significant warming" (which IS bullshit BTW).
    Dave also runs a business where his main preoccupation is coming up with clever ideas how to keep those N. Murray Edwards tar sands oil dollars coming in.

    Carbon Engineering is funded by several government and sustainability-focused agencies as well as by private investors, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and oil sands financier N. Murray Edwards.[5][6][7]

    TLDR: It's a bullshit study, created for the benefit of dirtiest of oil industries, so they could have something to point at and claim that burning tar ain't really that bad, all things considering.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  2. Re:Operation Dark Storm ? by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 4, Informative

    You know that famous painting, "The Scream"? Can you guess why the sky is orange? It's because of the 1883 Krakatoa eruption. Here are more paintings from that time". We might end up with an orange-tinted atmosphere, and the constant "sulfur" smell everywhere. Their idea is that injecting SO2 will chemically convert into SO4. It will also convert into H2SO4, more commonly known as "acid rain". It can also cause ozone depletion, which is one of the reasons it "can't stop" if we start.

    It's an apocalyptic idea, and has an insane amount of unmitigated risks. It's an "end-game strategy" that will irreversibly alter our entire planet, and will be the ultimate Anthropocene Epoch event; this will be our Chicxulub.

  3. Re:Sun is quieting to be more accurate (GSM) by ath1901 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here's a summary of their claims from a more respectable source:
    https://www.theguardian.com/en...

    As any good source should, they link directly to the actual articles and you can read them yourself. This is a published comment on her method:
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/...

    In short, she's using an oversimplified model of the sun, knows nothing about the impact on climate and the implications would anyway be very small (-0.3C compared to a warming of +0.2C per decade).

    I remember the solar cycle was a popular scape goat for global warming about 20 years ago but the focus shifted after a few years when there was just to much science showing the effect was minimal. Back then, the claim was that sunspots caused more solar storms and a "huge" amplifying effect due to cloud formation etc. Further research showed the effect was small and the deniers changed focus. This seems like a remake.