Global warming/nuclear winter: cancel each other out?

Mycroft

High Priest of Ed
Mycroft
Joined
Sep 10, 2003
Messages
20,501
So I finally got around to watching the episode of The Daily Show that had All Gore pushing his latest video and the thought struck me: if global warming is as bad as they say, then it's really bad, but if the climate change really does get so extreme that major parts of the world get flooded, don't we have the technology to fix it?
 
Nuclear winter as the cure?

My understanding is that the nuclear winter phenomenon is the result of the smoke generated by massive explosions, rather than nuclear fallout...we had it when that asteroid hit Earth and zapped the dinosaurs.

So what we really need is not all-out strategic thermonuclear war, a la General Jack D. Ripper, but to be hit by another asteroid.

Let's put Barry Bonds on Jupiter, and slow-pitch him asteroids. That ought to do it. :D
 
There's a perfectly feasible technology to control global warming - sunglasses for the earth.

Sounds kind of ridiculous but it could actually be pulled off by launching arrays of solar reflectors that orbit directly between the sun and the earth. We could then control the amount of sunlight the Earth receives from the sun, thereby controlling the warming and ameliorating the effect of the CO2. Once CO2 was reduced to more manageable levels the project could be sent on an orbit into the sun and natural processes could then take over.
 
Kiwiwriter said:
My understanding is that the nuclear winter phenomenon is the result of the smoke generated by massive explosions, rather than nuclear fallout...we had it when that asteroid hit Earth and zapped the dinosaurs.

So what we really need is not all-out strategic thermonuclear war, a la General Jack D. Ripper, but to be hit by another asteroid.

Let's put Barry Bonds on Jupiter, and slow-pitch him asteroids. That ought to do it. :D
Click to expand...

Or we just let off enough bombs to put enough dust in the air to cool things down. We could nail two birds with one stone by allowing our war on terror to go nuclear, thereby creating a list of far away targets for our bombs. I bet sand would be good material to spread in the upper atmosphere to cool things down.
 
Apollyon said:
There's a perfectly feasible technology to control global warming - sunglasses for the earth.

Sounds kind of ridiculous but it could actually be pulled off by launching arrays of solar reflectors that orbit directly between the sun and the earth. We could then control the amount of sunlight the Earth receives from the sun, thereby controlling the warming and ameliorating the effect of the CO2. Once CO2 was reduced to more manageable levels the project could be sent on an orbit into the sun and natural processes could then take over.
Click to expand...

Another technology with possible two-birds with one stone applications. These "reflectors" could be solar panels which simultaneously shade the earth and provide power for our air conditioning units!
 
Yeah, this is a great idea, every time the temperature goes up, we'll just blow off a few dozen nukes to cool things off. Or maybe we could just build an air conditioner the size of Europe and blow all the hot air into outer space. Or maybe we could build a giant freezer to create Texas-sized chunks of ice.

Or maybe we could just come to our senses and stop living like there's no tomorrow. Because if we don't, sooner or later there won't be one.
 
Mycroft said:
Or we just let off enough bombs to put enough dust in the air to cool things down. We could nail two birds with one stone by allowing our war on terror to go nuclear, thereby creating a list of far away targets for our bombs. I bet sand would be good material to spread in the upper atmosphere to cool things down.
Click to expand...

Sand grains are too big. They wouldn´t stay up long enough.
 
Mycroft said:
Or we just let off enough bombs to put enough dust in the air to cool things down. We could nail two birds with one stone by allowing our war on terror to go nuclear, thereby creating a list of far away targets for our bombs. I bet sand would be good material to spread in the upper atmosphere to cool things down.
Click to expand...

Obviously this is absurd.

The only technology that could defeat GW is our own determination to stop polluting the planet and avoid nuclear conflict.

Come on Mycroft, you were only joking right?
 
Apollyon said:
There's a perfectly feasible technology to control global warming - sunglasses for the earth.

Sounds kind of ridiculous, but it could actually be pulled off by launching arrays of solar reflectors that orbit directly between the sun and the earth. We could then control the amount of sunlight the Earth receives from the sun, thereby controlling the warming and ameliorating the effect of the CO2. Once CO2 was reduced to more manageable levels the project could be sent on an orbit into the sun and natural processes could then take over.
Click to expand...
Yes you're quite right, it does sound ridicilous. do you have a souce for this? Preferably one with an estimated cost for sending so many oversized sunglasses into orbit that it would actually have an impact.
 
Kerberos said:
Yes you're quite right, it does sound ridicilous. do you have a souce for this? Preferably one with an estimated cost for sending so many oversized sunglasses into orbit that it would actually have an impact.
Click to expand...
NASA seems impressed enough by the idea to provide some preliminary funding for exploring the feasibility:

http://www.universetoday.com/2006/07/07/solar-shade-to-reverse-global-warming/

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/niac_proposals.html

ETA: imo, Elton John could probably donate to the cause. :D
 
Mycroft said:
Or we just let off enough bombs to put enough dust in the air to cool things down. We could nail two birds with one stone by allowing our war on terror to go nuclear, thereby creating a list of far away targets for our bombs. I bet sand would be good material to spread in the upper atmosphere to cool things down.
Click to expand...
If we're going nuclear in the war against Global warming I think you should just wipe out Africa and the Middle East altogether. That way you not only solve global warming and the terror problem, you also remove the source of 95% of all the depressing international news. That way the news programs can concentrate on telling how Jennifer Aniston has found love again, rather than civil wars, starvation and terror. Particular if we let it be known that this fate awaits anybody on the wrong side, of the war against news that make you feel bummed.
 
Kerberos said:
In other words it is not a perfectly feasible technology, it's something that might possible be worth looking into whether is a feasible solution.
Click to expand...
Considering the general outrageousness suggested by this topic I didn't anticipate an attack by either the pedant crew or grammar nazis, therefore my initial reply was intended to be a bit lighthearted.

But if it makes you feel better, imagine my initial post was prefaced by "imo."
 
Apollyon said:
Considering the general outrageousness suggested by this topic I didn't anticipate an attack by either the pedant crew or grammar nazis, therefore my initial reply was intended to be a bit lighthearted.

But if it makes you feel better, imagine my initial post was prefaced by "imo."
Click to expand...
well you response came before most of the joke responses I don't really see how I was supposed to know that you were joking, you second response didn't exactly indicate it either, I read texts not minds you know.
 
Well I figured that mentioning "sunglasses for the earth" in the first and Elton John's donations in the second would be a tipoff, but I will attempt less nuanced comedy in the future.
 
While I found this episode of NOVA a bit too alarmist for my taste, it describes "Global dimming". The Basic principle is that particulates in the pollution we spew is actually blocking enough sunlight to reduce the effects of global warming.

Dimming the Sun

scientists have uncovered a new factor that may be masking the full impact of global warming. Called global dimming, it's powerful enough to alter temperatures in a matter of days. It may have contributed to the world's deadliest drought, and it could mean that the Earth's climate is about to start heating up as fast as the most dire predictions.
Click to expand...
 
On the one side, we've got greenhouse gases that are pulling the system towards a warmer state, on the other hand, we've got particles from pollution that are cooling it down.

NARRATOR: In other words, while the human greenhouse effect has produced 2.6 to three watts of extra energy for every square meter of the Earth, global dimming has subtracted about 1.5 watts, so, more than half the warming effect of our greenhouse emissions has been masked by the cooling effect of particle pollution.

Perhaps this is why, despite a large rise in the concentration of greenhouse gases, until recently, the temperature rise has been hard for most of us to notice.

PETER COX: We're going to be in a situation, unless we act, where the cooling pollutant is dropping off while the warming pollutant is going up. CO2 will be going up and particles will be dropping off, and that means that we'll get an accelerated warming. We'll get a double whammy. We'll get reducing cooling and increased heating at the same time, and that's, that's a problem for us.
Click to expand...

photochemical smog is the only hope for mankind......:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom