"Since the beginning of time man has yearned to destroy the sun."--C.Montgomery Burns

[lapsedmodernist]

THE idea seems like something out of a Superman comic: a machine or missile shoots tonnes of particles into the atmosphere that would block the Sun's rays, cool down the overheated Earth, and reverse global warming.

But at the weekend scientists gathered in a closed session organised by NASA and Stanford University to discuss researching such a strategy. The idea is called geo-engineering: using technology to tinker with the Earth's delicate climate balance.

Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, said his modelling showed the idea worked. "We found that if you blocked 20 per cent of the sunlight over the Arctic Ocean it would be enough to restore sea ice," he said.


Reverse terra-forming. This can't possibly go wrong. Not with Our NASA that, if memory serves, fucked up the mirror on the Hubble and had to send a repair mission, because one of their contractors used the metric system, and the other one...didn't. Hmmmm.

Comments

[astronomick.livejournal.com]

Isn't Nuclear Winter supposed to do the same thing? Hmmm...

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

Plus, well, what help does it give to the acidifying oceans? And then there are the unknown unknowns, as Donald says.

Freeman Dyson, who's skeptical of global warming, also has a marginally better solution, which is genetically engineering crops to produce more roots, which would return more top-soil to farm land (good thing). An extra 1/100th of an inch of topsoil on all the world's farmland would return atmospheric carbon to pre-IR levels.

I hope this works. Or something does. I don't see otherwise how we're not already doomed.

[kowboy.livejournal.com]

Genetically engineering plants.

Another great idea with minimal repercussions in the long-term.

[kowboy.livejournal.com]

Some one needs to sit them down and force Highlander II on them. The plot is almost exactly the scenario laid out, except the scientist in charge is Belgian.

[flintultrasparc.livejournal.com]

Let us all remember that Highlander II was one of the WORST MOVIES EVER.

[kowboy.livejournal.com]

Damn Belgians.

[goddessspiral.livejournal.com]

OH you beat me to it! I was about to post and say, "Hello! Highlander already thought of that idea. duh!"

hahaha

[amadea.livejournal.com]

didn't they do something like this in the Matrix, too?

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

well, sort of but not really. In Highlander II they are actually trying to build a shield to protect the Earth from the sun's radiation. In The Matrix, what happens to the atmosphere is implied to be nuclear winter--we learn that during the final conflict between AI machines and humans, humans essentially destroyed the atmosphere, so the machines, which had been built to run on solar energry, were deprived of their energy sorces and thus started feeding on humans as batteries.

[amadea.livejournal.com]

Right, but didn't they do it on purpose, to cut off the machines? That was my recollection, and what made it so horrifying for me - that it had Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

oh, yeah, but I thought they did it with nuclear weapons as a last desperate attempt, like the least of two evils, rather than strategic terraforming...but...well...yeah.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

oops meant to use this icon

[flintultrasparc.livejournal.com]

Do you want to save the habitat of the polar bears, or not?

You might just as well start clubbning seals to death yourself if you try and prevent the Sun Shield!

:)

[exeyel.livejournal.com]

lol NASA has had so many bloopers and miscomunications/miscalculations over the last decade that I wouldn't trust them.

BTW, love the icon, can I gank it? Will give credit :)

[dfordoom.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a great idea. Of course if they get it wrong we'll all die, but it will be fun won't it? Playing with a new toy. A bit like giving a five-year-old a shotgun to play with.