News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:It's Time to Start Talking About Geoengineering by yummyfajitas on Friday November 06, 2015 @08:04AM (#10519209)
The cheaper geoengineering proposal is emission of sulfur particles into the stratosphere - i.e., the sunlight reflecting portion of a volcano. I don't recall the cost estimates, but they were drastically lower than $4T.
Re:It's Time to Start Talking About Geoengineering by kragen on Friday November 06, 2015 @04:45PM (#10522264)
You mean sulfate — the sulfur in the volcano oxidizes when it hits air at lava temperatures, if it wasn't oxidized already. That's what I was referring to with "stratospheric acid". It's true that it would be cheaper, but we're talking about the equivalent of one Krakatoa eruption every couple of years, for centuries. Nothing like that has happened since the advent of life on earth, so although it might work and be safe, or it might have unexpected and undesired effects, for example due to sulfuric acid in rain.