SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 2022: NOTE TO FILE
The 90+ Savants
More than 90 scientists write open letter encouraging study of geoengineering to cool planet
Eric Lee, A-SOCIATED PRESS
TOPICS: NOT NEARLY SMART ENOUGH, FROM THE WIRES, TOO CLEVER BY HALF
Abstract: We humans have a problem. There are not nearly enough humans, some of whom are needed to invent solutions to the problems the rest of us worry about that might interfere with our plans to help grow the economy.
COOS BAY (A-P) — That there are way “more than 90 scientists from around the world” who could be found to write “an open letter recommending that research be done on the potential of increasing solar radiation modification (SRM) — the reflection of sunlight away from Earth’s atmosphere, sometimes referred to as ‘solar geoengineering’— in order to slow planetary warming and lessen climate impacts” is not news (EcoWatch, March 1, 2023). Billions of Anthropocene enthusiasts know (deeply believe) that scientists will solve the global climate change issue, because that is what clever apes (with lots of money when backed by political will…) do, i.e. they save life as we know it so we can keep on keeping on and on forevermore (while things keep getting better and better). Humanity has a future, a destiny to fulfill, and a little CO2 can't get in the way (and so won't) of our prosperous future.
There are at least nineteen potential Direct Climate Cooling (DCC) methods that we Anthropocene enthusiasts believe merit early consideration (NOW!). We must responsibly investigate all possibilities, pick one or all, carefully monitor implementations, and save our planet for the taking so we can keep on taking. These methods listed in alphabetical order:
● Bright Water
● Buoyant Flakes
● Cirrus cloud thinning (CCT)
●Direct Air Capture (DAC)
● Extremely diluted Aqua Regia Aerosol (EDARA)
● Fizz Tops (Fiztops)
● Ice shields to thicken polar ice
● Iron Salt Aerosol (ISA)Marine algal bloom stimulation
● Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB)
● Mirrors for Earth’s Energy Rebalancing (MEER)
● Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)
● Restoring natural upwelling from tropical to temperate latitudes
● Restoring soil and vegetation
● Rock weathering — Recently, there have been proposals to try and enhance mineral absorption of carbon dioxide by grinding rocks rich in silicates and spreading them across huge swaths of farmland to draw CO2 out of the air
● Seawater atomization (Seatomizers)
● Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI)
● Surface Albedo Modification (SAM)
● Titanium Oxide Aerosol (TOA)
● Tree planting and reflective materials in urban areas
● Spread Moon dust to shield Earth from harsh Sun
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
I sometimes think of up to six more ways to fix climate change before breakfast.
All Institutions of Higher Learning (with lots of money, e.g. Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, MIT, Caltech, Stanford...) have interdisciplinary think tanks to study future risks. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry (Effective Altruism is one solution). Every year at Davos the concerned line up to hear presentations on the top ten risks to life as they know it, and they all believe in solutions.
A point of interest is that none of these teams of the best and brightest clever apes (even those whose list of threats exceed a hundred) ever mention the number one threat to humanity. They may worry about the long term future of humanity and of the threat to trillions and trillions of humans yet to be born if, for some almost unimaginably tragic reason, we should fail to turn Earth into a Trantor, build a Dyson sphere, and go forth into the Milky Way to assimilate all solar systems, to turn them all into humans and technology (and pets and livestock) before we expand to fill all galaxies with wonder... the wonder of us and, you know, the transhumanist technology we need so we can live forever and ever (or until some sovereign individuals may decide to die just because).
"If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and five minutes finding the solution," is an Einstein quote that Nate Hagens and many others like to quote. It means that if you spend 90+% of your life studying the problem, but fail to think of a real solution, then you get an A if not an A+ (but no solution means posterity can't pay the overshoot debt we are so enthusiastically incurring, and they all die a ghastly death). Oh, and the Einstein quote is fake, as are the 90+ pundits and all the think tanks piled high and deep, covered in a mountain of money.
And the meta-problem? Easy, ask Pogo. And the solution? Easy, make me world dictator.
