I always wonder why there is never any mention of non-linear dynamics and chaos theory in discussions of climate change and, especially, mitigation.<p>We've changed a few variables in a complex and sensitive system by introducing a lot of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Temperatures appear to be rising in approximate correlation to the concentration of those gases. It's naive to expect that taking out the CO2 or - God forbid - pumping out sulphur dioxide particles is going to have any predictable effect.
tl;dr: "Cloud brightening, which entails spraying salt particles toward coastal clouds to make them reflect away more heat; and stratospheric injection, which pulls off a similar trick by lofting particles like sulfur dioxide into the sky." (From TFA.)<p>What. Could. Possibly. Go. Wrong?<p>I'm no luddite, but we are so bad at manipulating ecosystems, we cause so much damage via secondary, tertiary, and etcerary effects, that the idea of mucking, nay, fucking, with the entire atmosphere just seems overwhelmingly idiotic.<p>I really hope this guy is neither charismatic nor driven, because he is handsome enough that with charisma and drive he will convince enough politicians that surely someone somewhere will try this, regardless of the results of thoughtful risk analysis.<p>There is so much here we barely understand we must move cautiously, lest we kill ourselves in the process.
The earth has warmed and cooled many times in its history. Isn't it reasonable to expect there is a natural negative feedback mechanism, and that this negative feedback mechanism will manifest itself and return the earth to equilibrium?
Testing in production.<p>Big fan of engineering climate stability given that we are inadvertantly engineering its instability but, as always, the devil is in the details and the nitty gritty of how to do it.
so current (pre)heating of the Earth happens to be only pre-movie show. Buckle your seat belts, it is only a matter of time before somebody would do something like this on a global scale. China if not US, or Russia or ... some wealthy individual :<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/oct/15/pacific-iron-fertilisation-geoengineering" rel="nofollow">http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/oct/15/pacific-i...</a>
I find this stuff annoying. It's heroics. And I think that is the opposite of what we need. If you want things to calm down, pushing hard in the opposite direction does not calm things down. It just introduces yet more stress into an already stressed system.<p>I wish we could do more to promote walkable community design and public transit and bicycling as a commuter alternative, especially in the U.S.<p>This sort of thing really frustrates me. It is chest beating, not problem solving. It is ego-based, not care-based.