Posted on 02/02/2024 7:10:16 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
It’s come to this. With Earth at its hottest point in recorded history, and humans doing far from enough to stop its overheating, a small but growing number of astronomers and physicists are proposing a potential fix that could have leaped from the pages of science fiction: the equivalent of a giant beach umbrella, floating in outer space.
The idea is to create a huge sunshade and send it to a far away point between the Earth and the sun to block a small but crucial amount of solar radiation, enough to counter global warming. Scientists have calculated that if just shy of 2% of the sun’s radiation is blocked, that would be enough to cool the planet by 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 Fahrenheit, and keep Earth within manageable climate boundaries.
The idea has been at the outer fringes of conversations about climate solutions for years. But as the climate crisis worsens, interest in sun shields has been gaining momentum, with more researchers offering up variations. There’s even a foundation dedicated to promoting solar shields.
Proponents say that a sunshade would not eliminate the need to stop burning coal, oil and gas, the main drivers of climate change. Even if greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels were to immediately drop to zero, there’s already excessive heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
A sunshade would help stabilize the climate, supporters of the idea say, while other climate mitigation strategies were being pursued.
“I’m not saying this will be the solution, but I think everybody has to work toward every possible solution,” said Szapudi, the astronomer who proposed tethering a sunshade to an asteroid.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“The Earth is drowning ... in stupidity.”
Drowning in evil. (It’s the evil that makes them stupid).
The crisis is in education, not intelligence, which is innate.
What climate crisis?
What “climate crisis?”
Do you mean the “climate crisis” ideological tool being used by the WEF to transform the western world???
Gee, how about consulting with some plant biologists before proposing dangerous schemes like this?
Plants need light and carbon dioxide. Decrease either one, and plants will suffer. Ironically, decreasing the light will cause carbon dioxide levels to increase, because plants will be less active and pull less CO2 out of the air to grow.
With all of this fear-mongering over a trace gas in the atmosphere, I wonder if any of these bozos have ever studied biology? Photosynthesis? The carbon cycle?
Are they aware that life evolved under conditions with more CO2 and O2 than now? Are they aware that the concentration of CO2 has decreased from a percent concentration to parts per million concentration over the geologic history of the earth? Natural processes remove CO2 and make it permanently unavailable to biological organisms. Those famed White Cliffs of Dover are composed of calcium carbonate, formed from CO2 that used to be in the air. Animals were larger back in the dinosaur and pre-dinosaur eras—could it be because of abundant CO2 and O2 which supported their growth?
I wish someone with some sense would speak out.
Unfortunately, even though the mechanism proposed for CO2 to heat the air cannot work, there is a strong political pressure to promote this idea and the draconian “solutions” that go with it. Socialists have always wanted to force people to live more primitive lifestyles. We wouldn’t do it when they just tried to force socialism on us for the sake of socialism. But when they say it’s for the environment, all of a sudden, people are fine with having their rights and quality of life taken away.
Ironically, I have yet to see a scheme that will actually change the average temperature of the earth without causing great harm. Blocking the sunlight will inhibit plant growth, in turn inhibiting the use of CO2 by living organisms. Removing CO2 from the air will cause plants to grow less and those that need higher CO2 concentrations will die off. And when the plants die because of lack of CO2, there is less food for everything else that depends on plants, so animal populations will also decrease. And the overall effect on temperature will be to drive it up, since without plants, more ground is bare and converts sun energy to heat.
No.
yup yup it's time to return to our roots
Of course not. The planet would cool so much that we'd need MORE heating than before.
The atmosphere must have CO2 in it for life to exist on earth, but while everyone is focused in CO2 (the squirrel) the ignore the biggest by far greenhouse gas; Water vapor.
The people who propose nutty stuff like this must really really want to trigger a transcontinental glaciation event.
These people are criminally insane. It’s likelier than not that we are soon to enter a mini-Ice Age, and they want to cut off the planet’s sunlight!?
BATSHIT CRAZY.
The reality is that to the Left, reality and truth are not values.
A parasol the size of Colorado? How is that going to happen?
I couldn’t agree more! That aside, let’s look at the mechanics of such a concept: the Earth revolves around the sun, therefore it seems to me that the giant parasol would have to move as well to keep it in position. Have they even tried to work out the logistics of THAT? I don’t think so.
A worthless remedy for a nonexistent problem.
If the “climate crisis” experts and advocates stopped using electricity the problem would be over—permanently.
;-)
If the “climate crisis” experts and advocates stopped using electricity the problem would be over—permanently.
;-)
With the punchline being that the Dr. showed up to make a house call... in his heavy winter coat... gave her a sedative because she was really just having an hallucination, then turned to her husband and said "Goodbye, "I'm taking my family south... of course that will only prolong it for a time..."
That's what bullhsit like this reminds me of.
NEEDS TO BE A BUMPER STICKER
This sounds like something you would get if you asked one of the ‘AI’ programs to write a ridiculous solution to a non-existent situation.
ALL FOOD
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.