It’s Time to Cool the Planet

Wall Street Journal ^ | JUNE 15, 2009 | Jamais Cascio

[Lorianne]

If we’re going to avoid climate disaster, we’re going to have start getting a lot more direct. We’re going to have to think about cooling the planet.

The concept is called geoengineering, and in the past few years, it has gone from being dismissed as a fringe idea to the subject of intense debates in the halls of power. Many of us who have been watching this subject closely have gone from being skeptics to advocates. Very reluctant advocates, to be sure, but advocates nonetheless.

What has changed? Quite simply, as the effects of global warming have worsened, policy makers have failed to meet the challenge. As a result, if we want to avoid an unprecedented global catastrophe, we may have no other choice but to reduce the impact of global warning, alongside focusing on the factors that are causing it in the first place. That is, while we continue to work aggressively to reduce the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, we also need to consider lowering the temperature of the Earth itself.

To be clear, geoengineering won’t solve global warming. It’s not a “techno-fix.” It would be enormously risky and almost certainly lead to troubling unforeseen consequences. And without a doubt, the deployment of geoengineering would lead to international tension. Who decides what the ideal temperature would be? Russia? India? The U.S.? Who’s to blame if Country A’s geoengineering efforts cause a drought in Country B?

Also let’s be clear about one other thing: We will still have to radically reduce carbon emissions, and do so quickly. We will still have to eliminate the use of fossil fuels, and adopt substantially more sustainable agricultural methods. We will still have to deal with the effects of ecosystems damaged by carbon overload.

[Straight Vermonter]

Is this Scrappleface or the Onion?

[shineon]

One word. One world government and weather reporting.

[2ndDivisionVet]

The planet has been cooling for over six years, Einstein!

[MHGinTN]

Since Earth is entering another maunder minimum, yes, Al Goreghoul and his ilk would say it is time to take credit for cooling the planet ... let's just hope the feckless half-whit freezes to death before the onset is complete.

[eclecticEel]

They’re desperate to do something - anything really - if they do nothing they’ll just look silly when the world fails to end.

[GeronL]

What idiots.

Please stop trying to mess with nature. Please stop trying to get a huge government grant.

[cynwoody]

The possible ability to geoengineer global cooling (the cheaplier the better), whether possible or desirable, is a nice antidote to more poisonous fixes, such as Bambi's Energy Tax, aka Cap and Trade.

I mean, why commit economic hara-kiri without waiting for the facts? When there are technological fixes waiting to be applied, should the earth really prove to be catastrophically warming??

This technology means Global Warming is a crisis we can afford to waste!

[Windflier]

What a load of complete rubbish.

This writer speaks as though Anthropogenic Global Warming is an indisputable fact, when the actual case is that the planet has been cooling since 1998.

He’s obviously never bothered to read up on the actual collected temperature data, and is simply spewing the religious dogma of the Algorian branch of the church of Mother Gaia.

Here’s a gem from his story:

“Who’s to blame if Country A’s geoengineering efforts cause a drought in Country B?”

Gee.... that’s a toughie..... who’s to blame?....hmmm...

This is an example of what passes for critical thinking among liberals and assorted moonbats. Just the fact that this writer would pose a question like this, informs us that your typical liberal would have a hard time answering the obvious.

This is what we’re up against, folks.

[Billthedrill]

Jamais Cascio is a serious fruitcake. Check out his Wiki Entry - an "ethical futurist" if you please, meaning an individual with a professionally vivid imagination whose advice, taken literally, would mean deliberately altering the homeostasis of the planet based on faulty data, speculative interpretation, and a firm belief that one may leap from a poorly descriptive model to a normative one in the complete absence of any research. I'd just as soon not bet the planet's future on this level of vanity and self-assurance, thanks. The data thing - I'd kind of want to see the data thing first.

[MHGinTN]

Rahmbo won’t like your take! He’s told us to realize a crisis—even a fabricated one—should not be allowed to pass, unexploited.

[MHGinTN]

Besides, democrat voters are too stupid to realize they’ve been snookered, there is actually wothing humans could od or have done to cause global cooling or warming.

[JLS]

That is what I wondered then I noticed the author was from San Francisco. That pretty much explained the religious belief of warming while cooling is in fact going on.

[arderkrag]

“Oh, great. The Swedes turned the A/C off again.”

[NavyCanDo]

Mom was right all along.

Everyone on earth needs to at the same time go to their refrigerator, and open the door, and leave them open until the earth cools. What was it that all Moms said? Close that door you’re letting the cold air out.

[Berlin_Freeper]

It is June 21 and we have yet to have a single hot day in B erlin Germany. Its been quite the opposite.

[gigster]

I’m running two fans now, as we speak.
If everyone, in the whole world,ran two fans,simultaneously,
Globull Warming would be cured.
Hey! What are you waitinng for?

[gigster]

(waitinng)?
I meant “waiting”.

[ColdSteelTalon]

This kind of bunk is the reason I cancelled my subscription...

[Smokin' Joe]

If these flipping idiots want cooling, all they need to do is build a pipeline and ship some of that excess heat up to North Dakota this winter. If it is anything like last winter, we'll be happy to have it.

I think they were out in the sun too long and fried their little peabrains.