Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumHarvard Researchers Are Preparing to Geoengineer the Atmosphere
In a first-of-its-kind study, scientists will disperse aerosols into the stratosphere in initial tests of a controversial technique for blocking incoming solar radiation.A team of Harvard researchers is preparing a first-of-its-kind field experiment in the hotly-debated area of solar geoengineering, the controversial idea to combat climate change by pumping aerosols into the sky to reflect the suns rays back into space.
The study will be the first to actually shoot tiny amounts of material into the stratosphere to study solar geoengineering although researchers caution they will start with water vapor and wont exceed volumes over 1 kilogram of any substance.
Yet the concept of intentionally modifying the earths atmosphere as a corrective for global warming is highly contentious, even among those who believe it could one day be used responsibly.
The idea that you could even think about adjusting the temperature of the planet is terrifying, said Frank Keutsch, one of the Harvard scientists leading the study. But the consequences of climate change are also quite terrifying. This is a very serious subject.
More: https://www.seeker.com/earth/climate/harvard-researchers-are-preparing-to-geoengineer-the-atmosphere
MFM008
(19,818 posts)Something somewhere. Somehow...
Crash2Parties
(6,017 posts)Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)Phoenix61
(17,013 posts)Dimming the Sun. It included research on air temperature in the three days following 911 when all planes were grounded. You can buy the DVD but the transcript is free on their web site. I'd post a link but I'm on my phone and not sure how to do that.
GreenGreenLimaBean
(402 posts)We are already GEOENGINEERING the planet, so why not keep the ice caps from melting while we get rid of fossil fuels? Whoever thinks this is a bad idea is just plain wrong, or possibly wanting the ice caps to melt in order to allow drilling in the arctic....
hatrack
(59,592 posts).
GreenGreenLimaBean
(402 posts)and the paris accord is a bandaid....there is no time to waste. Let me repeat, we are already GEOENGINEERING THE PLANET with GHG's. Wind/Solar will do the job eventually, but not fast enough to stop the ice caps from melting. And yes, oceans are acidifying, and that problem needs to be solved as well, but this thinking that we should continue slowing weaning ourselves off fossil fuels, and GEO-Engineering cannot be considered is plain wrong on it's merits. Sometimes I think some would rather see the planet melt/flood just to say "I told you so".....
NickB79
(19,258 posts)Sounds good in theory, right? Only it may end up killing you instead.
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)Global warming's evil twin...
hatrack
(59,592 posts)And considering the percentage of the planet's oxygen that comes from phytoplankton (70%), "short-sighted" doesn't even start to capture the stupidity entrained therein.
JudyM
(29,265 posts)be impacted. Kind of a bad risk to later say "oops" about.
caraher
(6,279 posts)In addition to the aforementioned fact that the real problem should be named "carbon pollution" (ocean acidification being yet another manifestation), there's the further problem is that the worst prospect for geoengineering comes if it works.
The reason "working" would be a disaster is that once you start an intervention, you have to keep it up. Because as soon as you stop, if you haven't reduced the greenhouse gas levels, you've actually increased the gap between the new "set point" for temperature and what it is before it has equilibrated. The result is that the rate of warming is greater than it would have been had you done nothing, and this makes adaptation that much harder (less time to adapt) and increases the likely extinction rate.
And if you imagine that governments would recognize this possibly disastrous outcome and take every conceivable measure to ensure the interventions continue, once begun, no matter what, just take a look at what is happening right now in the US. Had Obama launched a "successful" geoengineering program, it would have been immediately scuttled by Trump.