March 31, 2005
Global Warming: Crazy solution to buy some time?
Update: Well, seems like I'm not the only one with crazy ideas. Have a look at this thing
Before we start: I will need the help of people with a much stronger scientific background than mine to know if this is feasible (someday, not now for sure) or not (for some physics-related reason?) and what the major obstacles to overcome would be.
I am not saying that this thing even if it was possible would be anything else than a way to buy some time, or that more cost-effective options are not available. I was just having fun throwing ideas around, and figured that since global warming is something that humanity (and the rest of life on Earth) will have to deal with for a long time, that maybe someday we will have the technological capacity and incentives to do something on this scale to swing the climate pendulum in the other direction.
Here's the idea: Global Warming is not caused by greenhouse gases themselves but by the solar energy that they trap on Earth. If we can't reduce the amount of greehouse gases present in the atmosphere fast enough, we are faced with a problem.
But what if we could influence the other variable; the amount of solar energy that gets to the Earth?
That's my crazy idea.
What if we could create some kind of artificial partial solar eclipse?
The Moon, which is much smaller than the Sun, can almost hide it completely if it's in front of it (based on the principle that the farthest away something is, the smaller it looks; ergo, something close and small can hide from view something big and far away). I don't see why we couldn't eventually build something - some kind of extra-large orbiting space-blankets - that could block a few percent (or fraction of a percent? I don't know how much would make what kind of difference) of the light that would otherwise get here, thus offsetting the effects of global warming and buying us time while we make the transition to a non carbon-based society. This deflector, unlike the moon, would need to sit in between the Earth and the Sun until we don't need it anymore. I don't know what kind of orbit could achieve that, or even if it's possible, but a work-around would be to build many deflectors (in geo-stationnary orbit or otherwise) that would, through a day-cycle, deflect the required amount of light.
Of course I know that this would be a large - HUGE - scale project, but I figure that our technological capabilities will keep increasing in the coming decades, and that if this kind of project could save a lot of hardships to life on Earth in the coming centuries, it would be worth the trouble.
My problem is with calculating how big a deflector we would need and what percentage of the Sun's output would we need to block to achieve the desired effect. That's where I need the help of people who know what they are doing. Not to mention that there's probably some ridiculously obvious flaw with the idea that makes it impossible forever... or there's some other much more simple way to achieve a similar result. I'm a law student, not a scientist, so please be indulgent and let me know what you think.
Image that represent a generic solar eclipse, not what my idea would look like:
Before we start: I will need the help of people with a much stronger scientific background than mine to know if this is feasible (someday, not now for sure) or not (for some physics-related reason?) and what the major obstacles to overcome would be.
I am not saying that this thing even if it was possible would be anything else than a way to buy some time, or that more cost-effective options are not available. I was just having fun throwing ideas around, and figured that since global warming is something that humanity (and the rest of life on Earth) will have to deal with for a long time, that maybe someday we will have the technological capacity and incentives to do something on this scale to swing the climate pendulum in the other direction.
Here's the idea: Global Warming is not caused by greenhouse gases themselves but by the solar energy that they trap on Earth. If we can't reduce the amount of greehouse gases present in the atmosphere fast enough, we are faced with a problem.
But what if we could influence the other variable; the amount of solar energy that gets to the Earth?
That's my crazy idea.
The Moon, which is much smaller than the Sun, can almost hide it completely if it's in front of it (based on the principle that the farthest away something is, the smaller it looks; ergo, something close and small can hide from view something big and far away). I don't see why we couldn't eventually build something - some kind of extra-large orbiting space-blankets - that could block a few percent (or fraction of a percent? I don't know how much would make what kind of difference) of the light that would otherwise get here, thus offsetting the effects of global warming and buying us time while we make the transition to a non carbon-based society. This deflector, unlike the moon, would need to sit in between the Earth and the Sun until we don't need it anymore. I don't know what kind of orbit could achieve that, or even if it's possible, but a work-around would be to build many deflectors (in geo-stationnary orbit or otherwise) that would, through a day-cycle, deflect the required amount of light.
Of course I know that this would be a large - HUGE - scale project, but I figure that our technological capabilities will keep increasing in the coming decades, and that if this kind of project could save a lot of hardships to life on Earth in the coming centuries, it would be worth the trouble.
My problem is with calculating how big a deflector we would need and what percentage of the Sun's output would we need to block to achieve the desired effect. That's where I need the help of people who know what they are doing. Not to mention that there's probably some ridiculously obvious flaw with the idea that makes it impossible forever... or there's some other much more simple way to achieve a similar result. I'm a law student, not a scientist, so please be indulgent and let me know what you think.
Image that represent a generic solar eclipse, not what my idea would look like:
