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The sun blotted out from the sky
Global warming demands more than do-gooder actions. It demands "geoengineering" -- like blocking the sun's rays with stratospheric dirt.
By Elizabeth Svoboda [2008-04-02]

  • Not bloody likely

    This is an interesting thought experiment, but it is completely outside the pale of anything realistic.

    What kind of insect hive do you think we live on? We can't get three nations on this planet to agree to a lunch menu, but we're going to get everyone's buy-in on large-scale geoengineering projects?

    With all the conspiracy theories out there, how popular do you think the "blot out the sun" program is going to be with voters in democratic countries?

    And for what? So we can tune the earth's temperature down a few degrees instantly? Global warming is bad therefore global cooling is good?

    It's not WARMING that's the problem, it's CHANGE, rapid CHANGE in the environment. This is the equivalent of banging on your dryer with a mallet to get it to balance.

    There's a simple answer for global warming which we are going to implement by default: ignore it. As the climate changes and water rises and farmlands become deserts, people will displace and then settle into a new niche.

    Eventually, we will burn all the oil in the world and the Earth's climate will stabilize. Let's hope it's livable for humanity by the time we get there.

    We're not going to do anything about global warming. Certainly nothing expensive and flashy. Isn't that apparent?

    -- flipside
    [Read flipside's other letters]
    Tuesday, April 1, 2008 08:42 PM
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