Quote:
Originally Posted by RedDevil
We may need to cool the Earth but we should be careful if that involves creating craters of 70 km diameter.
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It definitely should be a last resort. But on the topic of artificially cooling the Earth it's still theoretically an option I would think.
Here's my list of theoretic options (not that I really know anything
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- Reflective/shade cooling
- Surface reflection (painting everything "white" including "white" infrared and ultraviolet. More snow/white sand covered ground).
- Atmospheric reflection/shade (ash or other particulates in the upper atmosphere. More cloud formation).
- Orbital shade (lots of satellites with ginormous mirrors. Maybe blow up the moon so it forms a ring that always shadows the Earth at some point)
- Radiant cooling
- Greenhouse gas reduction.
Of course the easiest way to lower global temperatures would be by reducing or eliminating artificial greenhouse gas production and planting more trees.
But after that my guess is the next easiest way to effectively reduce global temps would be to throw ridiculous amounts of dinamite down active volcanos from time to time to create a flow of ash into the atmosphere. Although not very practical or easy to do, and it may be totally impractical or impossible. But I don't know what would be easier or more practical.
I don't foresee painting all buildings white fixing the problem, although every little bit helps of course. And trying to shade the Earth with satellites would be an impossible endeavor, as would be trying to set up snow making machines in every place it can freeze. Exposing more sand would mean more desertification, which has the disadvantage of creating less cloud cover and less plants to pull CO2 from the atmosphere.
Of course I'm no scientist. Maybe blowing up the moon is a valid option...
