There's a big, big debate brewing about "geoengineering" -- messing deliberately with the earth's climate to tweak it to our liking. This article in The Economist is a decent primer.
You can already see the shape of the debate emerging, and it's strikingly similar to the nuclear debate. A massive, unproven, problem-ridden, techno-utopian solution is advanced as representing Science!, and critics who warn of hubris and point to more human-scale solutions are derided as ... you guessed it ... dirty hippies.
I'm going to write a lot more about this soon.
Comments
View as Threaded
Kif Scheuer Posted 5:48 am
16 Jan 2007
they didn't understand the uncertainties involved in messing with the environment!
Permalink
GRLCowan Posted 11:17 am
16 Jan 2007
--- G. R. L. Cowan, former hydrogen fan
Oxygen expands around B fire, car goes
Permalink
spaceshaper Posted 11:41 pm
16 Jan 2007
Lemme think. Uh, here we go. Give GE a few bazillion dollars in tax money (borrow it from China, duh, blow off Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to pay the interest) to develop the Global Air ConditionerTM. Step up the military so we can collar all the world's oil reserves to feed the thing (no reason to stop at the Mid-East). Make it a fully zoned system so we can selectively inundate, say, Bangladesh if they get uppity without dumping on our Miami real estate investments. Step up the military some more so we can be real certain it's our hand stays on the thermostat.
Now that's geo-engineering for real men.
Permalink
enki Posted 6:54 pm
17 Jan 2007
So, on a global level we have already been engaged in Geoengineering for quite some time although somewhat without our own awareness of it. We did this by altering the composition of the atmosphere of our planet. Yes we did it accidentally but we did do it and it COULD have been done intentionally if we wanted to.
NASA and sci-fi buffs have for some time been looking forward to Terraforming other planets to make them suitable for human habitation. I think that our modification of the atmosphere on this planet serves to validate the Terraforming process in a real world situation.
So then whether we call it Terraforming or Geoengineering we have to realize that we are already doing it. The idea of putting a label on it simply signifies that we are taking responsibility for our actions and pre-planning their outcome so that a positive result will occur.
Permalink
Nucbuddy Posted 7:43 pm
17 Jan 2007
Engineering difficulties have a tendency to vanish in the face of exponential energy-production growth. Myriad things possible today were impossible 100 years ago. In the mean time, energy production has continuously grown ~2.75% per year.
Permalink
Nucbuddy Posted 7:47 pm
17 Jan 2007
Permalink
amazingdrx Posted 12:48 am
18 Jan 2007
A series of nuclear detonations over axis of evil countries would throw up a layer of fallout in the stratosphere blocking sunlight. Like a mild nuke-you-ler winter.
If it's not enough cooling, declare a few more nations evil and blast away again, until the climate feels right.
That's a manlier solution. Clouds of particulated evil-doers!
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
Permalink