Lagrange L1 - Global Cooling - Solar Power

[freebeard]

Whoa dude, have you ever really looked at you hand....

You might pick a video from www.youtube.com/results?search_query=planck+constant (except that Stranger Things excerpt).

As for the Earth cooling: Micronova.

[Piotrsko]

If you can assign a number to something, or measure it, then it must be possible to go colder than absolute zero or conversely maximum heat. But how would you know?

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

If you can assign a number to something, or measure it, then it must be possible to go colder than absolute zero or conversely maximum heat. But how would you know?

Absolute zero is theoretical, and it simply means the atoms have stopped moving entirely. I've heard of a theory of less than absolute zero, but I don't know how you can stop motion more than completely.

There was a cool documentary called the Quest for Cold that showed the history of cold and the quest for near absolute zero and the neat property of matter at those temperatures.

[RedDevil]

An ice age will only happen when CO2 levels are well below 250 ppm.
A volcano might bring the temperature down for a while due to the ash, but it will also likely add more CO2 so once the ash has washed out of the atmosphere we're worse off than before.

Mauna Loa Observatory measured an average of 414.02 ppm for December 2020, up 2.26 over one year. COVID-19 might have slowed the growth a little, but that's nowhere enough to stop the trend.
Fear for an impending ice age is completely off the mark.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

An ice age will only happen when CO2 levels are well below 250 ppm.
A volcano might bring the temperature down for a while due to the ash, but it will also likely add more CO2 so once the ash has washed out of the atmosphere we're worse off than before.

Maybe. CO2 has a greenhouse effect, but from what I've read scientists still believe that volcanic activity has caused ice ages in the past including during a similar hot, high-CO2 period, the Jurassic period transition to an ice age.

The last "mini ice age" supposedly took place in the 6th century, lasted 125 years and is also thought to have been caused by volcanic activity.

[freebeard]

Maybe. CO2 has a greenhouse effect...

There're particulates, aerosols and gasses.

Aerosol
An aerosol is a suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in air or another gas. Aerosols can be natural or anthropogenic. Examples of natural aerosols are fog, mist, dust, forest exudates and geyser steam. Examples of anthropogenic aerosols are particulate air pollutants and smoke. Wikipedia

What have we learnt from the CCP virus? Anthropogenic forcing went down and temps went up. Use of fossil fuels (or maybe just fewer jet contrails) cools the planet. [citation needed]

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

Maybe. CO2 has a greenhouse effect, but from what I've read scientists still believe that volcanic activity has caused ice ages in the past including during a similar hot, high-CO2 period, the Jurassic period transition to an ice age.

The last "mini ice age" supposedly took place in the 6th century, lasted 125 years and is also thought to have been caused by volcanic activity.

From Wikipedia:

Major impact craters [that occured during the Jurassic period] include the Morokweng crater, a 70 km diameter crater buried beneath the Kalahari desert in northern South Africa. The impact is dated to the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary, around 145 Ma. The Morokweng crater has been suggested to have had a role in the turnover at the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition.

What happens when a really big meteor strikes the Earth is that the Earth loses a substantial part of it atmosphere. Like the one 65 million years ago, before which the air at sea level was twice as dense as today and contained 30% oxygen; after the impact it was less than 1 Bar and just 15% oxygen. This does not only kill off all species that came to depend on the higher pressurized oxygen rich air, but also removes much of the greenhouse gases and mechanism, lowering the temperature substantially over time.

Some scientists have wondered how the giant pterodactyls and insects of the past could fly at all; they would not be able to in current conditions. Dense air and high oxygen levels change everything though.

We may need to cool the Earth but we should be careful if that involves creating craters of 70 km diameter.

[freebeard]

....or even seven kilometers.

How do you distinguish an asteroid from a micronova? Which one happens on a 12.5K year cycle?

[Isaac Zachary]

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.

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 ):

• 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...

[freebeard]

It definitely should be a last resort

Wait! The crater is anthropogenic? That would be an act of war.

Of course the easiest way to lower global temperatures would be by reducing or eliminating artificial greenhouse gas production and planting more trees.

It's not the gases, it's the aerosols and particulates. Plus methane is a more potent gas than CO2.

The solution to living in Earth's environment lies between people's ears. Needless destruction and operating at cross-purposes would be good places to start. Less trying to steer the climate and more prepping for the Black Swan events that can't be predicted. Hotter, colder, darker, blindingly bright.

Of course I'm no scientist. Maybe blowing up the moon is a valid option...

Well, thank goodness for that then.