http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1120510,00.html
Giant space shield plan to save planet
Mark Townsend
Sunday January 11, 2004
The Observer
Humanity could not exist without it - yet in an extraordinary plan that
underlines the catastrophic implications of climate change, scientists
now want to curb the Sun's life-giving influence to save mankind from
its biggest threat: global warming.
Key talks involving the Government's most senior climate experts have
produced proposals to site a massive shield on the edge of space that
would deflect the Sun's rays and stabilise the climate.
Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of metallic 'scatterers' would be
ejected into the upper atmosphere under the plans. In addition, billions
of tiny barrage balloons could serve as a secondary barrier to block
rays from the Earth's nearest star.
On land, giant reservoirs holding saline water could be built to offset
the rise in sea levels caused by the melting of the polar ice-caps. The
oceans, too, would be modified to cope with the planet's increasingly
warmer weather. Massive floating cloud-making machines would be dotted
across their surface while, below, large plantations of algae would be
grown to absorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
The theories were discussed by Britain's most eminent climatologists at
a meeting in Cambridge last week to analyse the latest theories to
tackle the problem of the planet heating up. They included the
Government's chief scientist, Sir David King, who warned last week that
climate change was the most severe problem facing civilisation.
Professor John Schellnhuber, former chief environmental adviser to the
German government and head of the UK's leading group of climate
scientists at the Tyndall Centre, said: 'These are exotic ideas and we
probably will have to come up with the right mixture. But the problem
has not gone away, so we think this analysis is just in time.
'The present climate policy does not seem to be working. We are not
saying we have the magic bullet, but this is a desperate situation and
people should start thinking about the unconventional. Preventative
plans on a larger scale are needed.'
Environmentalists maintain that the solutions are so radical they serve
only to underscore how unprepared governments are to deal with the
threat. Last week researchers predicted that a quarter of land animals
and plants will die out because of global warming over the next 50 years.
Scientists, however, argue that until the United States and Russia
ratify international agreements to limit the emission of greenhouse
gases they will have little choice but to explore new methods to save
the planet.
Extreme technological fixes include deploying tens of billions of
wafer-thin metal plates less than a centimetre wide into the Earth's low
orbit via space rockets. These would be specially built to allow
space-bound rays to pass while at the same time absorbing a significant
amount of solar energy before bouncing it back into space. They would be
designed to stay in place for a century.
Similar solutions include the release of massive nets of ultra-fine
metal mesh into the upper atmosphere by aircraft to prevent the Sun's
rays from reaching Earth. Alternatively, millions of metallic-coated
super-pressure balloons - similar in design to a children's party
version, although a fraction of the size - would be filled with helium
and released until they reach the stratosphere 35,000ft above the Earth.
Trapped in parcels of air, they would stay up for about five years
before falling to earth and being replaced.
All the methods are designed to block about 1 per cent of the Sun's
rays, enough to protect at least one million square kilometres of the
Earth and significantly cool the planet.
Inspiration came from studying the effects of volcanic eruptions in
Indonesia in 1814. During these explosions, enough material was spewed
into the upper atmosphere to cause temperatures to fall by up to 30 per
cent for almost three years, roughly the amount some predict that they
will rise to by the end of this century.
Academics from California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who
told government scientists about the billion-pound scheme, claim it will
increase crop yields, because plants would be less damaged by the Sun's
harmful rays. The scheme would create more spectacular sunrises and
sunsets, deeper blue skies and would reduce the cancer risk for
sunbathers and children.
Pumping nutrients into the world's oceans remains another weapon under
consideration. This would encourage the growth of vast underwater algae
blooms to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Scientists believe
'large-scale ocean fertilisation' could act as a substitute for the
world's disappearing forests, which act as a huge natural sponge for
soaking up carbon dioxide from the air.
Massive floating cloud-making machines could also become a feature of
the oceans. These solar-powered contraptions would spray seawater
droplets of a precise size into the sky to help encourage the formation
of low-level clouds.
Other ideas being looked at include the burial of carbon dioxide
emissions underground. Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Roger
Higman said: 'Climate change is the biggest environmental threat the
world faces. It is important for scientists to explore imaginative ways
to tackle its impacts, but technical fixes must not be used as an excuse
for failing to reduce the growing levels of greenhouse gases.'
This week the Government will announce how it proposes to implement the
most significant piece of climate change legislation since the Kyoto
protocol, Europe's greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme.
Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
If America is safer since the invasion of Iraq and the capture of Saddam Hussein, why did Bush raise the threat level to orange over the holidays? It seems threats come from Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, NOT Hussein's baathist insurgents. Doh!! -- Claudia Dikinis 12/29/03
