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The problem with Climate Scientists... Timidity! [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-06-23  

Climate Scientists talk about the Global Average Temperature increase of 1.5 degrees C as being a threat to the Earth.

That claim is not a lie but it is Malpractice! The problem is Much Much worse than 1.5 degrees C.

Already, Global Warming has increased the Global Average temperature by More than 1.5 degrees C and worse it has also increased the Summer Heatwave Maximum temperature to beyond the Life threatening level of a wet bulb temperature of 95 degrees F. That Will kill you if you stay outside.

The Dinosaurs all died off in the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum [PETM] when the global average temperature increased by 5–8 °C. In the last 100 years, we have already released more CO2 and Methane than the PETM released in 200,000 years so we can expect a faster and more severe episode of warming before the climate recovers.

We have known how to fix all of the causes of Global Warming for more than 70 years, but we have refused to act. The clock is ticking and the price of action is rapidly increasing. If we had acted in 1950 the price of action would have been about 100 Billion and whoever took the action would have earned most of that money. Now the price is at least 10 TRILLION and everyone will have no choice but to pay and Pay and PAY.

In 1950 the solution would have been to subsidize the development of Solar and Wind power for the entire world [Very EASY and great politics]. In 1979 the solution would have been to follow President Carters plan for Space based Solar Power Satellites [Hard but Doable]. In 2000 the solution would have been a crash program to Solarize the World and give everyone Solar powered air conditioning [Easy but expensive].

Now it is too late for easy or Doable solutions. Now our only path is a crash program of solarization for the entire world, but that is not enough. To mitigate Global Warming to keep the death toll under 1 Billion people, we will need to do a massive geoengineering project to block the sun in the high arctic and the antarctic. We will need to put Gigatons of Sulfur Dioxide into the high stratosphere to block enough sunlight to force a volcanic winter over the poles.

The geoengineering solution will involve building a fleet of aircraft sized like a 747-800 but shaped like the Rockwell Star-Raker. The plane would carry 100 tons of liquid sulfur to 100,000 feet above the arctic and antarctic. at that time the plane would add the sulfur to the afterburner of it’s jet engines and spew sulfur dioxide into the high stratosphere while climbing to 150,000 feet and circling the pole until the sulfur runs out. Lucky for the world, the plane was already designed by NASA and the Aerospace firm Rockwell International. 10,000 flights a year each adding 200 tons of sulfur dioxide to the high stratosphere would shield the high arctic from sunlight and stop the melting of the ice caps. The polar vortex would be stabilized and the gulf stream would not shut down.

All of the engineering problems with the Star-Raker design have been solved in the last 50 years. so developing the space-plane would cost less than most new plane designs but we would need to use a very large number of them.

Mount Pinatubo launched 17 megatons of sulfur dioxide into the high stratosphere, causing global cooling by 0.5 °C (0.9 °F). To cause a volcanic winter over the arctic would require more that 10,000 Star-Rakers flying 365 days a year for 50 years. Doing such a massive project would require cooperation from the entire world. The U.S., Russia, South Africa and Chile would need to jointly fly the Star-Rakers and the entire world would need to provide the Megatons of Sulfur each year.

Even if we commit to geoengineering it is probably too late to save at least a Billion people who will die from starvation or heat prostration while the world denies reality and dithers. I expect that within 20 years, every Oil company in the world will be prosecuted and convicted of corporate murder and all of their executives will be convicted of first degree mass murder and executed in an appropriately horrible way [chain them to a stone monument in the dessert and watch as they turn into a Raisin].



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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/23/2248255/-The-problem-with-Climate-Scientists-Timidity?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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