Well, if it results in a baby shooting a greedy old man, I’ll allow it. I guess.
drumrhyno on
As an asthmatic and in general, someone who enjoys breathing clean air, I would rather NOT be breathing in these particulates personally. Also, how will it affect plant growth? Ocean water? weather cycles? Can we perhaps do just a little bit of research before we go spraying potentially harmful shit into our atmosphere and blocking out our only renewable source of heat, light and energy?
BitingArtist on
This was a good way to get people to stop talking about Epstein files. It’s like the pizza vegetable thing. Just a distraction.
DanimalPlays on
Did everyone forget the Matrix? What’s the company that wants to do this called, fucking Skynet?
Guitarman0512 on
Because this will definitely end well…
Geoengineering is a stupid idea. We can’t be trusted as a species to do so in a safe way.
boersc on
Carbon capture is a fad, as is this. Its main purpose: get government money.
I am highly sceptical of these ideas.
buffydavaginaslayer on
ill get right on that. just lemme finish throwin these here rocks at them there airplanes.
vafrow on
There’s a fiction book called Ministry For the Future that has this as a key part of its plot. I wouldn’t otherwise cite fiction for discussing science topics, but it has a few elements that stick with me that makes this idea hard to dismiss out of hand.
In the book, a massive wet bulb event happens wiping out a huge swath of people. That event triggers the impacted country to take drastic actions to reduce global temperature, acknowledging that the results may have unpredictable results. It’s not popular, but its also hard to govern. Unless other countries are willing to wage war on geoengineering practices, anyone with the resources can do it.
And that’s what sticks with me. As a global population, we seem susceptible to drastic, poorly thought out actions. Climate change is a huge complex problem. True solutions require sacrifice and patience. Those aren’t things that voting populations are known for. People will look for relatively easy answers.
Once impacts of climate change become even further realized, the solutions proposed will only get more dangerous.
Early_Material_9317 on
It seems to me that nobody can really say one way or the other yet. Should we not research it? Perhaps it is a terrible idea. Perhaps it might actually work though?
I dont think anyone is suggesting we just start full throttle pumping the atmosphere with more garbage, but surely there is a way to start with smaller scale testing, and researching to find the right material that has the desired effects with the least negative impacts.
Consider that there have been many volcanic eruptions in history that have been big enough to make detectable changes to the climate, and it hasn’t destroyed the world yet. Sending a few test planes up is not going to doom us all to a Snowpiercer scenario.
If this is a possible lifeline, rather than speculating, lets just do the science please.
theClumsy1 on
Lets not talk about it.
Rather come up with practical solutions than a “boil the ocean” solution.
As a thought experiment conducted by xkcd? Sure go for it.
fkid123 on
Yay, love it when someone posts an article that requires subscribing to read.
AncientSith on
Are we going the Matrix route of no sun and a robot war? I’d rather not.
TheDudeAbidesFarOut on
Make sure the train is built first. And that auto greaser has a few spares….
Asinto11 on
Admit the climate crisis is out of control? Naw.
Turn down the sun. Yaw!
lithiun on
Yeah…. Anything introducing *more chemicals* or particulates into the atmosphere is a nonstarter for me.
Blocking sunlight or reflecting it is inevitable imo but not through this method. I think the most practical is artificial “ice” reflecting light back from the poles but I feel like we’ll end up having to do more by launching solar shades into orbit or to L1. Something like that.
Sunlight is only a fraction of the problem though. Over abundance of CO2 is literally killing the biosphere in a number of ways. That needs to be solved or else blocking the sun is pointless. I am honestly surprised we haven’t found a way to convert CO2 into carbon materials and pure oxygen yet. Idk much about chemistry but I imagine something about the bonds between Oxygen and other elements makes that difficult.
am_reddit on
Blocking out the sun after creating AI seems like it’s just tempting fate at this point.
J1m1983 on
Blocking out the sun and AI. We’re really speed running the Matrix huh
Emm_withoutha_L-88 on
Could people please stop using fictional stories as the reasons they oppose scientific research?
Yes we all saw the matrix. It’s not reality.
nixium on
So we are matrixing our world huh.
We create AI. We create agents. Now we are thinking about blocking out the sun.
jroberts548 on
I am not filled with confidence by it being a for profit company who named itself after the code word for the construction of the death star. “nuclear physicist” (from a country nuclear weapons but no nuclear power) wants to darken the sun for profit.
The potential unintended consequences are catastrophic. In a world where we can’t model the weather 10 days from now, the short and medium term consequences of this cannot be predicted. In the long term, we know from volcanic eruptions that any cooling is short-lived and heating will rebound. It also means solar will work less well, which further delays decarbonizing energy production.
It is fully psychotic that anyone is even considering this instead of just not burning more fossil fuels. We know how to stop global warming, and instead of doing that we’re considering doing who knows what to crops and the weather while also requiring the use of even more fossil fuels by causing colder winters and ham-stringing solar energy.
Paesano2000 on
Hey look at this stupid nothing burger of a Hail Mary to stop global warming when we could have just stopped making CO2 instead, also don’t look over here while we continue to burn all the oil available until it’s too late and the oil companies have their maximum profits.
Yearofthehoneybadger on
For centuries man has yearned to destroy the sun. We’ll do the next best thing, we’ll block it out. -M. Burns.
Vossky on
This is exactly the premise of the series Snowpiercer. They solved global warming by freezing the entire planet and wiping 99.99% of humanity.
dustofdeath on
How about we stop oil industry instead of polluting atmosphere even more?
This will have unforseen consequences. Ones we can’t even predict.
J1540 on
lol. It would be a subscription service to corporate overlords.
KenUsimi on
This plan is madness and would be the death of us all. Our ecosystems are already under strain; you would deprive the entire world of the basic source of energy it needs to keep living, just to continue living in Pheonix? Just to keep vomiting greenhouse gases?
Hell, why not just drop a giant icecube into the Pacific while you’re at it, since we’re living in Toon Town now?
26 Comments
Wait, didn’t The Simpsons already do this?
Well, if it results in a baby shooting a greedy old man, I’ll allow it. I guess.
As an asthmatic and in general, someone who enjoys breathing clean air, I would rather NOT be breathing in these particulates personally. Also, how will it affect plant growth? Ocean water? weather cycles? Can we perhaps do just a little bit of research before we go spraying potentially harmful shit into our atmosphere and blocking out our only renewable source of heat, light and energy?
This was a good way to get people to stop talking about Epstein files. It’s like the pizza vegetable thing. Just a distraction.
Did everyone forget the Matrix? What’s the company that wants to do this called, fucking Skynet?
Because this will definitely end well…
Geoengineering is a stupid idea. We can’t be trusted as a species to do so in a safe way.
Carbon capture is a fad, as is this. Its main purpose: get government money.
I am highly sceptical of these ideas.
ill get right on that. just lemme finish throwin these here rocks at them there airplanes.
There’s a fiction book called Ministry For the Future that has this as a key part of its plot. I wouldn’t otherwise cite fiction for discussing science topics, but it has a few elements that stick with me that makes this idea hard to dismiss out of hand.
In the book, a massive wet bulb event happens wiping out a huge swath of people. That event triggers the impacted country to take drastic actions to reduce global temperature, acknowledging that the results may have unpredictable results. It’s not popular, but its also hard to govern. Unless other countries are willing to wage war on geoengineering practices, anyone with the resources can do it.
And that’s what sticks with me. As a global population, we seem susceptible to drastic, poorly thought out actions. Climate change is a huge complex problem. True solutions require sacrifice and patience. Those aren’t things that voting populations are known for. People will look for relatively easy answers.
Once impacts of climate change become even further realized, the solutions proposed will only get more dangerous.
It seems to me that nobody can really say one way or the other yet. Should we not research it? Perhaps it is a terrible idea. Perhaps it might actually work though?
I dont think anyone is suggesting we just start full throttle pumping the atmosphere with more garbage, but surely there is a way to start with smaller scale testing, and researching to find the right material that has the desired effects with the least negative impacts.
Consider that there have been many volcanic eruptions in history that have been big enough to make detectable changes to the climate, and it hasn’t destroyed the world yet. Sending a few test planes up is not going to doom us all to a Snowpiercer scenario.
If this is a possible lifeline, rather than speculating, lets just do the science please.
Lets not talk about it.
Rather come up with practical solutions than a “boil the ocean” solution.
As a thought experiment conducted by xkcd? Sure go for it.
Yay, love it when someone posts an article that requires subscribing to read.
Are we going the Matrix route of no sun and a robot war? I’d rather not.
Make sure the train is built first. And that auto greaser has a few spares….
Admit the climate crisis is out of control? Naw.
Turn down the sun. Yaw!
Yeah…. Anything introducing *more chemicals* or particulates into the atmosphere is a nonstarter for me.
Blocking sunlight or reflecting it is inevitable imo but not through this method. I think the most practical is artificial “ice” reflecting light back from the poles but I feel like we’ll end up having to do more by launching solar shades into orbit or to L1. Something like that.
Sunlight is only a fraction of the problem though. Over abundance of CO2 is literally killing the biosphere in a number of ways. That needs to be solved or else blocking the sun is pointless. I am honestly surprised we haven’t found a way to convert CO2 into carbon materials and pure oxygen yet. Idk much about chemistry but I imagine something about the bonds between Oxygen and other elements makes that difficult.
Blocking out the sun after creating AI seems like it’s just tempting fate at this point.
Blocking out the sun and AI. We’re really speed running the Matrix huh
Could people please stop using fictional stories as the reasons they oppose scientific research?
Yes we all saw the matrix. It’s not reality.
So we are matrixing our world huh.
We create AI. We create agents. Now we are thinking about blocking out the sun.
I am not filled with confidence by it being a for profit company who named itself after the code word for the construction of the death star. “nuclear physicist” (from a country nuclear weapons but no nuclear power) wants to darken the sun for profit.
The potential unintended consequences are catastrophic. In a world where we can’t model the weather 10 days from now, the short and medium term consequences of this cannot be predicted. In the long term, we know from volcanic eruptions that any cooling is short-lived and heating will rebound. It also means solar will work less well, which further delays decarbonizing energy production.
It is fully psychotic that anyone is even considering this instead of just not burning more fossil fuels. We know how to stop global warming, and instead of doing that we’re considering doing who knows what to crops and the weather while also requiring the use of even more fossil fuels by causing colder winters and ham-stringing solar energy.
Hey look at this stupid nothing burger of a Hail Mary to stop global warming when we could have just stopped making CO2 instead, also don’t look over here while we continue to burn all the oil available until it’s too late and the oil companies have their maximum profits.
For centuries man has yearned to destroy the sun. We’ll do the next best thing, we’ll block it out. -M. Burns.
This is exactly the premise of the series Snowpiercer. They solved global warming by freezing the entire planet and wiping 99.99% of humanity.
How about we stop oil industry instead of polluting atmosphere even more?
This will have unforseen consequences. Ones we can’t even predict.
lol. It would be a subscription service to corporate overlords.
This plan is madness and would be the death of us all. Our ecosystems are already under strain; you would deprive the entire world of the basic source of energy it needs to keep living, just to continue living in Pheonix? Just to keep vomiting greenhouse gases?
Hell, why not just drop a giant icecube into the Pacific while you’re at it, since we’re living in Toon Town now?