THE INSANE CLIMATE CHANGE SOLUTION
Geoengineering is an insane way to deal with climate change. Should we consider it?
Brad Plumer, February 12, 2015 (Vox)
“Geoengineering — the idea of deliberately fiddling with the Earth's climate to reduce global warming — has long been seen as an insane, preposterous, mad-scientist notion. We'd have to be truly desperate before we ever tried something like blotting out sunlight to cool the planet…[T]hat's why it's so striking that many scientists now think we should at least consider and study some of these crazy notions…[A]n expert panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences first report was harmless enough, looking at ways to suck out some of the heat-trapping carbon-dioxide…Those technologies are quite promising; they're just expensive and likely limited. Definitely worth researching…The second report, however, dealt with far more controversial ideas like putting reflective particles in the atmosphere to block some sunlight and cool the planet…This could be done cheaply, but it's extremely risky, and could wreak havoc on global rainfall patterns. The report warned we should absolutely not try this anytime soon. It's still way too poorly understood. But it is worth studying…[Neither] can ever be a substitute for…burning fewer fossil fuels and emitting fewer greenhouse gases…[but] we've been slow to do that, and we've locked in a fair bit of global warming…[so] we may need some additional tools…” click here for more
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