I saw on the TED blog this morning a proposed solution to, in the short term, control global warming. The global warming problem we have built up over the years that is now being seen as a crisis, won’t be fixed overnight. We built up the problem over a long time and it will take a long time for the change we are making now to start having an effect on the environment.
The worry now is that while companies and industries change and we ourselves change the way we live to be more environmental friendly, over the years our environment will have gotten so bad that we start truly feeling its effects, in flooded coastal cities and such.
At TED, Environmental scientist, David Keith, talks about a cheap, effective, shocking solution to climate change, meant to be a short term solution to global warming till such a time that change has propagated throughout society, at which time we can remove the environmental crutch.
And the solution is:
What if we injected a huge cloud of particles into the atmosphere, to deflect sunlight and heat? As an emergency measure to slow a melting ice cap, it could work. Keith discusses why geo-engineering like this is a good idea, why it’s a terrible one — and who, despite the cost, might be tempted to use it.
It sounds brilliantly simple and perfect. In fact, if you watch his talk, you’ll see that this solution was proposed way back when, but wasn’t carried further, I suppose because of the adverse effect it would have on the ozone layer.
In his talk David explains his idea and thoughts around this solution the pros and cons, how to overcome the impact this solution would have on the ozone layer and proposes a discussion take place around it. Lets further research and explore the pros and cons. Do we do it? How do we go about doing it, if we decide to go ahead? Who will control it? etc.
This is a very serious issue that would have a massive effect on the whole world, it needs to be thought out very clearly and agreed upon. Go check out his talk, very interesting.
