With the fires in LA it’s hard to feel optimistic about the future. I want to be reminded that all is not lost, we need to do a lot that likely won’t be done but there are still things to do.
So let’s say Climate Stalin became Supreme Leader of the World or just President of the United States tomorrow. Whats next? What steps do we take to stop climate change getting worse and mitigate the damage we’ve already done?
my hot take is that on top of everything else people have been mentioning, we are going to have to do some form of intentional geoengineering. I understand that this is a big risk, but it feels like we’re starting to get to the territory where we have to take risks, even if they might cause famines that kill millions etc. because if we don’t the consequences would be far worse. fitting for a “climate stalin” scenario too, considering the strategy the USSR had to use to industrialize under Stalin
I agree, and the “throw a bunch of iron shavings in the ocean” option seems relatively low risk from what I understand?
i’m sure every project is inherently risky just because we dont have models accurate enough to actually know how risky something is, but it does seem like a better idea to me than simulating massive volcanic eruptions with sulfur dioxide lol, which is what I normally see get brought up as the first option
as far as what i think is the best option, im not well informed but i remember stumbling upon this wikipedia article some months back https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_daytime_radiative_cooling , ive never seen anyone mention it before though so i assume it’s got some big drawbacks or something like that. but like this part:
seems very promising to me? i remember doing the math and even by the current (presumably higher) prices listed on wikipedia, it would only take a couple trillion of dollars or something like that? it was only like 2 or 3 years of the US defense budget iirc, although I suppose this doesnt account for labor costs