Scientists Propose Asteroid Dust Shield to Combat Global Warming

[BillyJack]

lol, Man kind IS going to kill our selves.

This would make a great movie. In the movie humans accomplish their goal and the earth finally cools down. We are all having a drink and talking about it when all of a sudden a mega volcano erupts and spills dust into the atmosphere. One guy looks at the other and says, "Oh ****". The movie ends.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Here we go again....

Yeah, it's

but I'm not sure how it relates to the topic. I'd have to argue that this video by Noam Chomsky is more relevant:

[Rippleman]

The whole point is NO ONE knows for sure and its all speculation. When it comes to climate change, for every person saying one thing another person is saying the other. When you factor in the fear part, people will tend to believe the worst.

[Hum]

Guys, I don't think you all understand. These guys are proposing the ultimate weapon.

[TPreston]

The whole point is NO ONE knows for sure and its all speculation

This is stupid of course no one knows for sure! no one knows for sure that this entire universe isnt an elaborate computer simulation FFS. Absolute certainty is absolutely useless!

With that aside we can be as confident in the current modal of climate science as with any other area of science.

When it comes to climate change, for every person saying one thing another person is saying the other

Facepalm, You could say this about evolution,heliocentric solar system,germ theory ? Should we discard those too because i can provide you real life examples of people denying all three.

1 http://www.icr.org/

2 http://geocentrism.com/

3 http://naturalnews.com/

How is this any different from the idiots at the websites above ? And how the hell are we ment to prove anything when all someone has to do according to you is create a blog and years of scientific research are voided ?

. When you factor in the fear part, people will tend to believe the worst.

What people believe is irrelevant, Its what people can prove thats important

[.Neo]

They're proposing to relocate an asteroid three times the size of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs in a near-orbit of Earth?

Here's another brilliant idea: We can detonate every nuclear weapon on Earth to create "nuclear winter" and cancel out the effects of global warming.

[theyarecomingforyou]

The whole point is NO ONE knows for sure and its all speculation. When it comes to climate change, for every person saying one thing another person is saying the other. When you factor in the fear part, people will tend to believe the worst.

There is a great difference between "speculation" and educated reasoning. For instance, we can use scientific theory to determine that dilution of the Gulf Stream through the melting polar ice caps will alter sea salinity and density, which will cause it to shift and change the climate throughout the Northern Hemisphere - it has happened before, so it's not wild conjecture. How do we know the polar ice caps will melt? Well, we've observed a trend of diminishing ice levels and again we can look to the past and see that they have melted before in a similar pattern. Of course there will be debate over the specifics and while the sheer number of variables will make it difficult to predict specific events it is much easier to predict general trends (rising sea levels, ocean acidification, extreme weather patterns, etc).

It is disingenuous to suggest it's all merely "speculation", especially when numerous reports predict similar outcomes using different methodologies and data. Have some portions of the media greatly exaggerated some of the claims? Absolutely, but that is true of every field. The reality is that we know an awful lot about what is happening and we can't simply sit around and wait for undeniable proof - evolution has taught us even when you have proof people will deny it. It's time to see climate change as an opportunity. What's the worst case scenario of climate change being a hoax but taking action to stop it anyway? We'll eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels, modernise industries, create jobs and nothing happens - some money is wasted and economic growth may be slowed but that's not the end of the world. What's the worst case scenario of climate change being real but taking no action to stop it? Millions dead, infrastructure destroyed, food shortages, more extreme weather and an end to society as we know it - even if it's only half as severe that's still a serious issue.

The point is why wait? We know that we're using the planet's resources at an unsustainable rate - from fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) to precious metals (lithium, gallium, indium), essential gases (helium) to aquifers, forests (for furniture, land for cattle) to food (cattle, fish, crops). It is simply impossible to maintain the level of resources we're using. So why are we doing nothing about it? The answer is because businesses make money and that's needed to keep capitalism afloat - unfortunately it's destroying the planet as we know it. Infinite growth with finite resources is impossible. Sustainability is the ONLY way forward. Is oil sustainable? No. Is our consumption of water sustainable? No. Is the amount of CO2 we're putting into the atmosphere sustainable? No. When CFCs threatened the atmosphere they were banned. When smog threatened lives and quality of life massive restrictions were introduced through the Clean Air Act. Businesses adapted and society moved on, having mitigated the impact had nothing been done.

There may be many questions still to answer but doing nothing isn't an option.

[XerXis]

The whole point is NO ONE knows for sure and its all speculation. When it comes to climate change, for every person saying one thing another person is saying the other. When you factor in the fear part, people will tend to believe the worst.

We might not know with absolute certainty what the cause of global warming is (although that isn't necessary, we are certain enough). But we do however know with absolute certainty that your claim about volcanoes was absolute bull. Which is enough to discredit all your other "facts"

[Japlabot]

Whether you accept Global warming or not, Global warming if true is not going to happen overnight. There is plenty of time to fix things than taking a gamble on terraforming the planet which lets face it, is more likely to cause problems. Whats worse is that even if it was miraculously 'successful' there would be so much space debris that it would be virtually impossible to ever leave this planet again for even simple missions and no way to undo it even once it does hypothetically cools the earth. There might even be too much debris and send us into an Ice age (if we make it past dodging all the meteor showers)

[Yogurtmaster]

fear sells and sell well, hence why "global warming" has a huge following... i have to take off right now but when i get back i can link 100X more pages back to you saying the opposite of what you linked... just like religion, people seem to believe what they choose to believe based on fear of the unknown, as in they are not in control so they must have something they can influence... nature currently is beyond mass control at the moment. i am not scared :) Could i be wrong? Yes.

It's not exactly fear of the unknown. It's more like fear of the known. All you have to do is study the Bible.

As for this case, I think it's too risky. Let science work it's magic without an asteroid.

[Rippleman]

We might not know with absolute certainty what the cause of global warming is (although that isn't necessary, we are certain enough). But we do however know with absolute certainty that your claim about volcanoes was absolute bull. Which is enough to discredit all your other "facts"

not my facts... "the-people-who-know-this-stuff" facts... and i would say i agree...

[XerXis]

not my facts... "the-people-who-know-this-stuff" facts... and i would say i agree...

You still didn't succeed in backing up your claim. And I guess you never will.

Let's recapitulate, your claim was: One single volcano eruption releases more CO2 in the atmosphere than the human race did in its entire existence.

So, prove it. What are the numbers according to you?

[TPreston]

not my facts... "the-people-who-know-this-stuff" facts... and i would say i agree...

You mean the climatologists... Yeah they disagree

[Rippleman]

You still didn't succeed in backing up your claim. And I guess you never will.

Let's recapitulate, your claim was: One single volcano eruption releases more CO2 in the atmosphere than the human race did in its entire existence.

So, prove it. What are the numbers according to you?

after digging deeper and lots of searching, it does infact seem like most claim volcanoes DO NOT emit more CO2. I was wrong.

You mean the climatologists... Yeah they disagree

there are climatologists that also say it is not our fault, like i said, i could be wrong and it could be our fault, the only thing that i know as a fact is fear sells and sells very well.

[TPreston]

there are climatologists that also say it is not our fault, like i said, i could be wrong and it could be our fault, the only thing that i know as a fact is fear sells and sells very well.

And there are geologists who claim the earth is 6000 years old big whop you may aswell say there are butchers that say it is not our fault.

When you cherry pick an appeal to authority you are disregarding climate science

[Luis Mazza]

after digging deeper and lots of searching, it does infact seem like most claim volcanoes DO NOT emit more CO2. I was wrong.

there are climatologists that also say it is not our fault, like i said, i could be wrong and it could be our fault, the only thing that i know as a fact is fear sells and sells very well.

Fear sells to the ones that have fear. What we see today is that nobody is fearing nothing... Global warming is increasing, be it natural or human-caused and we are doing nothing about this. We're actually just pretending that we are.

Also, if fear is indeed selling, then it is selling for our own good because pollution kills (I think I don't need to prove it, right?) and the few efforts that are done to cease global warming are also greatly reducing pollution.

So you can disagree with global warming being caused by humans, but we should do our part as it will undoubtedly improve our quality of life.

[Big b0b]

how about they just stop ****ing with things.

[Praetor]

They're proposing to relocate an asteroid three times the size of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs in a near-orbit of Earth?

Here's another brilliant idea: We can detonate every nuclear weapon on Earth to create "nuclear winter" and cancel out the effects of global warming.

:laugh:

[XerXis]

after digging deeper and lots of searching, it does infact seem like most claim volcanoes DO NOT emit more CO2. I was wrong.

there are climatologists that also say it is not our fault, like i said, i could be wrong and it could be our fault, the only thing that i know as a fact is fear sells and sells very well.

I like it when people can admit they were wrong. It shows character.

Apart from that, my take on it is simple. Yes I do believe that we have a negative effect on the climate and on nature in general. Does that matter for earth in the long run? No of course not, there have been bigger disasters. Does it matter to me personally that we are destroying ecosystems, yes it does, so I want that measures are taken to lessen our impact.

Regardless of all of the above and all the believes and scientists and naysayers, how could cutting down our dependence on fosil fuels be a bad thing? I want to live in a world where people strive to invent new ways to see to their energy needs. Where people believe that improving the efficiency of a wind turbine or solar panel might not only benefit the climate, but lead to bigger things.

[Rippleman]

When you cherry pick an appeal to authority you are disregarding climate science

read below

Does that matter for earth in the long run? No of course not, there have been bigger disasters. Does it matter to me personally that we are destroying ecosystems, yes it does,

this is kind of my stance on it as well... i KNOW we aren't HELPING, but even at FULL effort, we humans are just to small to stop/reverse/change things in the big big picture. I am a VERY STRONG advocate for recycling, water reduction/reuse, renewable power/energy etc... so i am FOR environment protection. but after saying that I just simply will not buy into the fear of global warming. It very well could be true (as in our fault), i just honestly believe we don't have much impact on it.