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.
  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
    49·
    8 months ago

    I think this is the new phase of the bad-faith propaganda. Promote weird, outlandishly expensive but vaguely-plausible-sounding solutions to get people away from talking about the things we can actually do (but which would lead to someone making less money and so, unacceptable.)

    • Johanno@feddit.de
      15·
      8 months ago

      No you don’t understand. We just need to build a dyson sphere and we are ser in energy for ever.

      This will be cheaper than anything we can do. For only 1$ per kW we can build it eeehm next year.

      /s

    • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
      3·
      8 months ago

      It’s not a bad idea if we had the technology to mass-produce film in the quantity required, the ability to easily and consistently place them where needed, and could maintain the array. None of those are true right now. If they were, it would be viable.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
        2·
        8 months ago

        Yeah. If we could do it, someone could run the numbers and find out that it’s about ten to a hundred times cheaper to just build a bunch of non-coal power plants, or find and eliminate methane sources, or, hell, I don’t know. I’m not an expert. But I definitely know that they’re not talking about this because it’s the easiest way.

  • Telorand@reddthat.com
    91·
    8 months ago

    Betteridge’s Law of Headlines: Any headline that ends in a yes/no question can be answered “no.”

    It could work (ignoring cost), except that tiny meteors flying around space would rip holes in such an expansive object. Just look at what happened to the JWST, and it’s much smaller than this would need to be.

    I’m sure the next big brain idea will be to cover the world in sunscreen or change the Earth’s orbit with a giant rocket.

    • Kalkaline @leminal.space
      5·
      8 months ago

      The JWST is still functioning at a very high level. It’s a poor comparison if you’re trying to argue against putting expensive stuff in space.

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
        3·
        8 months ago

        The point was that it got hit, despite being smaller than this would need to be. That’s where the analogy ends, because its purpose is very different from a giant umbrella.

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          2·
          8 months ago

          The idea is less umbrella and more parasol. Tiny holes would be just fine.

  • stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net
    103·
    8 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·
      8 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.
  • mindbleach
    4·
    8 months ago

    Even in the “just reflect sunlight” camp… clouds. Make more clouds.