Could a Giant Parasol in Outer Space Help Solve the Climate Crisis?
www.nytimes.com
Interest in sun shields, once a fringe idea, has grown. Now, a team of scientists says it could launch a prototype within a few years.
  • stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net
    103·
    10 months ago

    Weirdly, I’m not completely opposed to this. Solar sail technology is a promising avenue for interplanetary travel/exploration, and we’d want to test the technology for giant solar sails somewhere near the Earth, so why not?

    Besides the fact that “block the sun” is a traditional supervillain master plan, I guess.

    • silence7@slrpnk.netOPM
      19·
      10 months ago

      A bunch of reasons:

      • as we dump co2 in the atmosphere, much is absorbed in the oceans, acidifying them. This will kill off a big chunk of marine life
      • it’s tough, and not particularly likely to succeed at the needed scale
      • we will need to maintain this system for a few hundred thousand years. Humans don’t have a track record of maintaining civilization for that long
      • we will end up with substantially different weather patterns due to a reduced pole-to-equator temperature gradient.