Today, we present to you the Top 5 Wackiest Ideas To Stop Global Warming. Nobody ever said the human race isn’t creative…
5. Polluting The Oceans
Dumping iron into the ocean, to stimulate the growth of algae, in the hopes the blooms will act as a major carbon sink. You worried about eating tuna now? Scientist generally discount this scheme as potentially causing un-foreseen negative side effects and for not really doing the job, as once the iron was abundant another nutrient would become the limiting factor to algae growth. For more concerns see number 3.
4. Polluting The Atmosphere
Shooting sulfur into the air to reflect incoming solar radiation back to space (volcanoes do this naturally when they erupt). The sulfur solution would not be permanent, since the element lingers in the atmosphere for only a couple of years. Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, stays around for more than a century. Also the ecological effect of shooting sulfur into the stratosphere is unpredictable, like it might block too much sun-light out and hinder plant growth.
3. Feel The Algae Love
James Lovelock, environmentalist, futurologist and creator of the Gaia hypothesis and its view of Earth as a huge organism, proposes that we help the planet “cure itself” by artificially ramping up ocean mixing, which would stimulate the growth of carbon-munching algae, thereby sinking more carbon dioxide into the ocean. There are too many flaws in this plan to lay out here but a couple of the biggies: the oceans mixes slowly for a reason and what happens when all these carbon eating algae use up all the oxygen in the layer of the ocean where 80% of marine species live? Can we say acidification anyone.
2. A Real-Life Halo
Creating an artificial ring of small particles or spacecrafts around Earth to shade the tropics and moderate climate extremes. There might be some down sides to this Space Ring. An effective sunlight-scattering particle ring would illuminate our night sky as much as the full Moon, for example. And the price tag would knock the socks off even a big-budget agency like NASA: $6 trillion to $200 trillion for the particle approach. Deploying tiny spacecraft would come at a relative bargain: a mere $500 billion tops.
1. Operation: Umbrellas
Sure, they’re great for keeping you dry, but did you know they might save the planet? The idea would be to create a cloud of small Frisbee-like spaceships that go between Earth and the sun and act as an umbrella, reducing heat from the sun. Let’s see, 800,000 of these umbrella discs would be stacked into a rocket — with 16 trillion needed to do the job. So, 20 million rockets launches would be needed total. Well, if the sun doesn’t get us, the emissions for all those rocket launches might. Not to mention the $4 trillion needed for the job. Nice.
I know this is crazy, but we could actually reduce our carbon emissions. Since we already know how to do this, understand the out-come, and for the most part it can save everyone some money, it might be worth a shot. For tips on some things you can do and general user friendly info, check out Friends of the Earth. For a more serious read try The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
One Comment
I had a hypothetical idea, could we cool the warm ocean currents by deploying a metal cooling sheet in the ocean (and laying them where the polar ice caps extended to prior) to cool the warm tidal currents before they reached the polar ice caps, and preventing the north pole from deteriorating further and ensuring we dont enter a new ice age?
One Trackback
[...] Another is to change the composition of our atmosphere to reflect sunlight. Others tend to be more sci-fi and outlandish - but all of them might just turn out to be [...]