Climate in the 21st Century

Remember Lake Nyos in Cameroon? Its depths tend to get supercarbonated and unstable, and some years ago it ripped a mighty burp that smothered thousands. A clever Frenchman stuck a straw in it and suck-started it. The fizz creates a self-sustaining ramjet effect and a fountain 200 feet high. You could probably run a 50-kW turbine off the bitch.



So, demonstrating the ease with which I can access drunk grad student mode while being neither, why not do it to Yellowstone and, instead of waiting nervously for one apocalyptic whoopsie, slowly empty the world-ransoming fizzy magma reservoir through a somewhat more heat-resistant straw?

Instead of a decade of devastating supervolcanic winter and a million square miles under ash, why not get a coupla centuries of moderate global cooling? We might lose parts of Wyoming and Montana … but that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make.
Make a cool tourist feature.

cannabineer said:

imo that is the single good thing about LarStink - a coupla zillion reflectors.

The moon dust proposal has several problems, but the biggie is that the dust gets cleaned out quickly by sunlight pressure.

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That is a feature and not a bug. Something more permanent could be overkill and push us the other way into an ice age and we don't want that either. A lot of environmental scientist believe that we would be entering a period of global cooling were we not screwing things up with all the fossil fuel burning and other emissions like methane.

Personally I think as the US has historically been the worst contributor to global warming that they should set off a large nuclear device under Yellowstone and let the super-volcano there throw enough dust into the atmosphere to save the rest of us. Sounds fair to me.

It was volcanic eruptions that caused the mini-ice age in the 14th? century I believe and one good super volcanic eruption anywhere on the planet, and there are a dozen or so, should do the trick.

OldMedUser said:

That is a feature and not a bug. Something more permanent could be overkill and push us the other way into an ice age and we don't want that either. A lot of environmental scientist believe that we would be entering a period of global cooling were we not screwing things up with all the fossil fuel burning and other emissions like methane.

Personally I think as the US has historically been the worst contributor to global warming that they should set off a large nuclear device under Yellowstone and let the super-volcano there throw enough dust into the atmosphere to save the rest of us. Sounds fair to me.

It was volcanic eruptions that caused the mini-ice age in the 14th? century I believe and one good super volcanic eruption anywhere on the planet, and there are a dozen or so, should do the trick.

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you anticipate me, sir!

I’ve often wondered what would happen if someone centered a nice fat 2-mile lump of nickel-iron into the magma at 30 km/s. Maybe I could get a NEA grant to film it from orbit.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

i've thought about a series of satellites with "sails' that deploy when they're in place, that would do essentially the same thing on a slightly smaller scale...easy enough to keep them powered with a few solar arrays, easily replaced, relatively cheap...

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A large adjustable mylar disk about half way between the earth and the sun would work too. The closer to the sun the smaller the disk has to be to shade the planet. Seems easier than dust from the moon.

OldMedUser said:

A large adjustable mylar disk about half way between the earth and the sun would work too. The closer to the sun the smaller the disk has to be to shade the planet. Seems easier than dust from the moon.

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no, actually. Can’t skimp on disc size because that’s your attenuation factor. It is a massive solar sail though.

One day they will figure out how to make exhaust reflective, thereby saving the planet.

cannabineer said:

no, actually. Can’t skimp on disc size because that’s your attenuation factor. It is a massive solar sail though.

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Just spit-balling here. Not unlike everyone else trying to come up with a solution so we can maintain the lifestyles to which we have become accustomed. I like my vehicles to go Vroom-vroom rather than Hmmm-hmmm.

OldMedUser said:

Just spit-balling here. Not unlike everyone else trying to come up with a solution so we can maintain the lifestyles to which we have become accustomed. I like my vehicles to go Vroom-vroom rather than Hmmm-hmmm.

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I’m hugely geeking over the Aptera. Shame the company is probably not gonna reach takeoff speed.

That thing could handle 90% of my driving needs from just desert sun. Ten miles per kWh.
I hope to gawd Honda builds something like it.

cannabineer said:

I’m hugely geeking over the Aptera. Shame the company is probably not gonna reach takeoff speed.

That thing could handle 90% of my driving needs from just desert sun. Ten miles per kWh.
I hope to gawd Honda builds something like it.

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Looks like one of those backasswards trikes with a cab on it. Not my cup-o-joe.

OldMedUser said:

Looks like one of those backasswards trikes with a cab on it. Not my cup-o-joe.

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I don’t care for the gas-powered ones. But draconian efficiency engineering makes me all warm and tingly. I’m kicking myself for not having bought a gen-1 Insight. Now they’re cult cars.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

i've thought about a series of satellites with "sails' that deploy when they're in place, that would do essentially the same thing on a slightly smaller scale...easy enough to keep them powered with a few solar arrays, easily replaced, relatively cheap...

Click to expand...

I believe Roger Angel the scientist who invented spin casting telescope mirrors, proposed something like that years ago as a way of deflecting a percentage of the light hitting the earth. You would want something you could switch on and off, just in case!

OldMedUser said:

A large adjustable mylar disk about half way between the earth and the sun would work too. The closer to the sun the smaller the disk has to be to shade the planet. Seems easier than dust from the moon.

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Keeping it from accelerating to a fraction of lightspeed would be an issue! Just shading the North and South poles a bit should do the trick, but ya need the ability to control it and turn it off if required.

Grandpapy said:

One day they will figure out how to make exhaust reflective, thereby saving the planet.

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There is an idea to spread chemicals in the upper atmosphere to do that, but it is too risky IMHO. Such approaches would be a temporary solution, a stop gap while we develop new energy technologies and stop emitting more fossil CO2 and methane into the atmosphere. Things like greening deserts to capture carbon might be a solution, make fresh water from seawater and irrigate deserts while regrowing forests. In a century the human population will probably shrink significantly, if current trends in developed countries prevail. In two centuries, there might not be many humans around, even if we achieve a technologically driven Utopia with female emancipation.

DIY-HP-LED said:

Keeping it from accelerating to a fraction of lightspeed would be an issue! Just shading the North and South poles a bit should do the trick, but ya need the ability to control it and turn it off if required.

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At a centimeter per second squared (this close to the sun; the effect falls off), an eeeensy fraction.

cannabineer said:

Make a cool tourist feature.

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the Really Grand Canyon....

Roger A. Shrubber said:

the Really Grand Canyon....

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The fire fountain. It should be possible to shut it down before underpressure starts a caldera collapse. That could spike the eruption rate.

cannabineer said:

no, actually. Can’t skimp on disc size because that’s your attenuation factor. It is a massive solar sail though.

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if you put a series of satellites in geosynchronous orbit, they'll stay there, if you put a huge solar sail half way between the Earth and the Sun, wouldn't the same solar wind that would erode the dust cloud blow the disc away from the sun? it would have to have some kind of propulsion to remain in place, which seems quite impractical.

DIY-HP-LED said:

I believe Roger Angel the scientist who invented spin casting telescope mirrors, proposed something like that years ago as a way of deflecting a percentage of the light hitting the earth. You would want something you could switch on and off, just in case!

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Speaking of spinning mirrors, Oh! Canada

(Has a cool graphic comparing telescope primary sizes)

DIY-HP-LED said:

Keeping it from accelerating to a fraction of lightspeed would be an issue! Just shading the North and South poles a bit should do the trick, but ya need the ability to control it and turn it off if required.

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I used mylar as an example but with all the advanced polymers that have come out since mylar was invented. Something that could handle the heat and absorb photons from the sun rather than act as a sail to be pushed sounds like something already invented from an article I've read among thousands in the last few years.

Some sort of fix should only be needed for the next few decades while we transition to cleaner energy tho it would most likely take a few decades to bring any of these ideas to bear.

Time is the most precious commodity.