Kandahar

I just finished reading Superfreakonomics, the sequel to Freakonomics, and the authors have some very interesting ideas for how to reverse global warming WITHOUT spending a fortune to do so.

- Spray sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere through a super-tall smokestack. It would essentially be a hose that was miles long, held together with balloons. It could be attached to a factory's normal smokestacks, which would ejects its sulfur dioxide waste into the stratosphere (several miles up) instead of the troposphere (the near-surface air). A single hose on each of a mere two factories - one in the Northern Hemisphere and one in the Southern Hemisphere - would be sufficient. This would mirror the effect of a relatively large volcanic eruption like Mount Pinatubo, and would cool the earth by a couple degrees. TOTAL COST: $20 million in startup, $10 million per year.

- A fleet of wind-powered boats which sit in the ocean, and have underwater turbines to fling sea water into the atmosphere and create clouds. The white clouds, unlike the black ocean, would reflect sunlight and cool the earth by a couple degrees. TOTAL COST: A few billion dollars total.

What do you guys think? The technology for these already exists, and it would be much cheaper than the hundreds of billions we'd need to spend EVERY YEAR on climate change legislation. The scientists seem to think that these proposals are perfectly safe and feasible, but if they produced any unintended environmental consequences, the machines could easily be shut off and any damages would be reversed within a couple years.

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Kernel Sanders

Those sound like terrible ideas that would have massive, incalcuably complex unforseen consequences. I've heard an idea or two in a similar vein targeting ocean acidification (dump chemicals to balance out the pH changes), and the lot of them are horrible suggestions. Just look at any of the dozens of examples of intentional use of invasive species and the runaway effects they've had on the infinitely complex systems people have sought to alter for the better. Sure pumping tons and tons of sulfur dioxide would cause a cooling effect, but what else would it do, would those effects be positive, and do the negative effects outweigh the positive? I don't believe it possible to answer these questions in a satisfactory manner.

Sir Loin

Super cheap solution to Global Warming? Everyone shut up and stop breathing.

Djoop

People need to stop reproducing .. as much, reducing overpopulation would solve most of our environmental problems.

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Sir Loin

Codswallop.

Djoop

You may have a different perspective, being that you live in a place that seems to have kept some of its natural surroundings. I live in a country with over 400 people per km2 on average.

Codswallop...

Population and the Environment: The Global Challenge (ActionBioscience)

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UtahBill

and after we have cooled the earth enough to start a new Ice Age, then what?

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Gill

shhh, let the kids play...but if they try to get out of the backyard, let em have it with a fly swatter.

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Gladiator

Saw Myhrvold on CNN Sunday, his idea is to run a hose up 20 miles at the Antarctic and Arctic Circles, and pump 30 GPM SO2 into the upper atmosphere, to keep the poles cool.

He says his computer models are hopeful so far.


"Hose-to-the-Sky:" Still Spewing SO2 Idea to Stop Global Warming? : TreeHugger


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Kernel Sanders

Good luck building a hose four times higher than Everest and a pump to push SO2 through it