
Scientists suggest a giant sunshade in the sky could solve global warming - jonbaer
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/apr/05/scientists-suggest-giant-sunshade-in-sky-could-solve-global-warming
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classicsnoot
I wonder when we in the West will stop portraying Global Climate Shift as a
math problem with a findable solution and start treating it as an unavoidable
change in the rules of the Game of Life. Up until this point, every "solution"
has been veiled attempts by entities to expropriate market share from petro-
chemical interests. I think the mostly worthless political back and forth will
die down when the effects of GCS become easily distinguishable from extreme
weather events that affect regions previously underpopulated.

I realize that the above paragraph will cause knee jerk reactions, but I stand
by my belief that GCS is unavoidable. We cannot go back to some pre-industrial
equilibrium as there never was one. Climate has always shifted; humanity
exists in a Great Global Warm period in the long history of our shared planet.
Our industrial endeavours have exacerbated a system in natural flux, causing
dramatic shifts that were inevitable but are now happening faster. The true
fuck of it all is that regardless of whether or not my thesis is correct OR
the Global Warming Can Be Reversed crowd is right, the threat of pandemics,
astrological events, and cultural disasters (societal decay, war, tide pods)
is just as relevant. Regardless of your personal belief, I think it is readily
apparent that planning for inevitable catastrophe is a better long term bet
than praying for salvation through solar panels and coal powered cars.

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tlb
Imagine there were known, reliable technologies for adjusting global
temperature. You can raise or lower it 0.1°C / $B. What would the world look
like?

A good outcome would be a global agency that aims to preserve the pre-
industrial climate. But with $T incentives for agribusiness in northernly
growing regions vs coastal property developers it's not obvious that the
outcome will be so uncontroversial.

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ams6110
Why the pre-industrial climate. Why not the Jurassic climate? Why not the
Precambrian climate? Why is our current climate somehow the best?

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crowbahr
Because it's the one we built all our cities in?

It seems like an obvious answer: everything currently is built around current
water levels +/\- a meter or two.

10m extra of water does really bad things to a lot of costal cities. 10m less
kills off a lot of shipping harbors and logistical networks.

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chmaynard
Solar geoengineering proposals of this ilk are positively Strangelove-ian.
Silver bullet solutions have unintended consequences, but the people who
implement them are never held accountable when things go terribly wrong.

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Fjolsvith
Right. Crops affected and beaches shut down. Probably would change weather
patterns drastically, too.

