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pfdietz 14 hours ago

Albedo modification (stratospheric aerosols) seems much cheaper than direct air capture, as a stopgap.

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adrianN 14 hours ago | parent [-]

That unfortunately doesn’t help with ocean acidification.

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ryeights 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

We simply drop a giant tub of baking soda into the ocean every now and then.

	▲	Fishkins 14 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Thus solving the problem once and for all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW66EX75jIY

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loeg 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

So what? You still save millions of lives.

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culi 13 hours ago | parent [-]

The research isn't there. Jury is still out on whether the long term consequences are a net benefit. In the end you're talking about increasing emissions for a temporary decrease in temperatures. And the chemicals we have that are good candidates for albedo modification are quite toxic. Today more than 10% of deaths globally can already be attributed to air quality

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pfdietz 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If India is experiencing large scale mortality from warming, they aren't going to give a damn about your concerns. They're just going to inject aerosols into the stratosphere.

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culi 13 hours ago | parent [-]

India especially is experiencing many more deaths from air quality than from warming

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pfdietz 11 hours ago | parent [-]

[flagged]

	▲	culi 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Besides the well-documented increases in PM2.5 concentrations at ground level we already have clear research on we'd also face - ozone layer depletion - reduced precipitation in an area already drought-stricken. As well as other difficult to predict effects on local climate and weather - alteration of many stratospheric chemical cycles. We're talking changes to nitrogen oxide chemistry and even impacts on hydroxyl radicals which drive atmospheric cleansing capacity - increased risk of acid rain from sulfuric acid Like I said. The research is not there. There are many many side effects we haven't worked out yet. And spare me the personal attacks about dishonesty, jackass

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groby_b 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Humans tend to not breathe in a lot of stratospheric aerosols, on account of that being pretty high up.

As they sink down, they grow larger (condensation & coagulation). Once they reach the troposphere, they usually get down via precipitation, which also isn't really affecting a lot of breathing.

They can absolutely have other effects (see SO2/acidification, e.g), but air quality isn't really the main concern. For SO2 specifically, there's actually very little mortality sensitivity: https://www.giss.nasa.gov/pubs/abs/wa01010x.html

You're right that the research isn't there yet to make statements with confidence, but that applies to the air quality claim as well.