

Hack the Planet: How I solved Global Warming in my sleep - mathgladiator
http://blog.mathgladiator.com/2010/09/hack-planet-how-i-solved-global-warming.html

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mindcreek
That solution was raised a few years ago, proposal was using hundreds of
thousands of small aluminium very thin foils to somehow decrease the amount of
sunligth coming to earth, I believed they shelved it for two reasons, first
was not being able stop blocking the sun after a given amount of time and the
second reason was the blockage will effect different parts of the world very
differently north climates can freeze to death and milder climates can see
total environmental destruction due to very quick fluctuation in temperatures.

It was a good idea even then but massive water evaporating ships (
[http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=geoengine...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=geoengineering-
solution-no-9-the-fl-2008-09-08) ) was better IMHO at least you can stop doing
it whenever you want :)

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mathgladiator
Thank you, there are a wealth of links contained in that link.

I think there may be more practical benefits to aluminum in the sky if we can
control it. If we could control it to the point where cities can limit their
sunlight to reduce energy needs, then it could be a huge win and a commercial
success.

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izendejas
There's a saying in Spanish (haven't read it or heard it an English) which
translates to: "you can't cover the sun with a finger." It means you shouldn't
pretend to be solving huge problems by, in some ways, denying them and doing
too little.

However practical this solution may be (it's definitely clever), it does not
really address the biggest problem--our increasing dependence on fossil fuels.
It is creating more than just climatic problems (pollution, wars, etc), so why
not find hacks to alleviate such "addiction" and kill many birds with one
stone.

I think we should promote hacks when they address the root of a problem--
otherwise you create a bigger mess in the long run, but then, would they still
be called hacks?

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mathgladiator
I should write more on this, but I'm thinking the world needs a super project
to solve/build together to learn to work together. Only when the world works
together will the root of all problems start to fade and become solvable.

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danparsonson
The Sun isn't a point light source, so the further away from Earth you get
(and hence the closer to the Sun), the larger your aluminium sheet needs to
be.

Think of it in the limit - at the surface of the Sun, the sheet would need to
be almost as large (in diameter) as the Sun itself to block it out.

A remote-controlled moon would be cool though.

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sbierwagen
You wouldn't want to block the Sun out entirely. Indeed, you wouldn't want to
reduce solar flux by more than 10%, or so.

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danparsonson
From the article:

 _So, how do we block out the sun? If we go far enough out into space, then
the projected distance of whatever we build would leave a larger shadow. Think
of an eclipse where the moon blocks out the sun. If we go out farther, then we
don't need to build a moon. (Although honestly, we need to build a moon and
control it; how cool would that be)._

I was just replying to that. Obviously you wouldn't actually want to block out
the sun completely, unless you were a Bond villian.

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27182818284
Any deep analysis of geo-engineering spills a plethora of questions onto the
table.

e.g.

* Who is in charge? China? the US? England? India? * If the governments of the world can't get things done in Copenhagen, why would they get things done with geo-engineering? * What happens when one country feels its agriculture would benefit from more sunlight and wants to reverse a process or otherwise change something?

and so on

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nl
There have been a number of proposals for geo-engineering to solve global
warming. The problem with most of them is that they involve filling the
atmosphere with something to reflect IR, and the consequences of that are
unknown.

There was an article I read a while ago that speculated a low lying country
could unilaterally decide to do geoengineering, and it's not clear how other
countries would respond.

