Reduction of Sulfur Emissions from Ships May Be Causing Rising Sea Temperatures

Re:Reduction of Sulfur Emissions from Ships May Be Causing R... by sfvisser on Saturday August 05, 2023 @02:14AM (#37009454)

I highly doubt many proponents of geoengineering think in terms of rebooting or isolating individual factors.

The appeal of geoengineering is you can nudge specific systems slowly into another direction. You can start small and observe expected effects and unwanted side-effects.

Reduction of sulfer emissions by ships is an interesting starting point to learn something.

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Re:Reduction of Sulfur Emissions from Ships May Be Causing R... by Kuinox on Saturday August 05, 2023 @02:57AM (#37009659)

It is accidental geo-engineering.

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Re:Reduction of Sulfur Emissions from Ships May Be Causing R... by wnkrshm on Saturday August 05, 2023 @03:56AM (#37009965)

Starting small doesn't work if you have a nonlinear system. In nonlinear systems, the magnitude of a perturbance isn't linearly related to the absorbed effect.

So in the worst case: small input, giant irreversible effect.

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Re:Reduction of Sulfur Emissions from Ships May Be Causing R... by twobitshifter on Saturday August 05, 2023 @08:47AM (#37011497)

Control of nonlinear systems is common, in this case we’d be starting small by putting the system back to the state it was in when the sulfur were there. Additionally, removing an input can have an outsized effect as we saw here, so your philosophy seems to require a do nothing approach. Is that what you mean?

Of course that’s impossible to do since the world itself is doing things like erupting volcanos, shifting plates, melting glaciers, and redirecting ocean currents.

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