Friday, 10 February 2023

Moonshine?

A University of Utah study suggests solving the climate crisis by creating a 'solar shield'. The 'solar shield' would be formed by mining millions of tons of moon dust and firing it into space. That moon dust would eventually settle about a million miles above the Earth, where if would partially block the incoming sunlight (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/08/moon-dust-moonshot-geoengineering-climate-crisis). This technological 'fix' might sound OK in theory but the proposal has many problems. Firstly, in what sense would the nations of the Earth get a real 'say' in any of this? Putting the 'solar shield' in place would actually give its creators 'blackmailing' powers over the future of the entire planet. Secondly,'titrating' the amount of dust and its location to achieve the precise cooling effect, is unlikely to be easy. Thirdly, in the event of things going wrong, how easy would it be to reverse the 'solar shield's' effects? Fourthly, isn't such a geoengineering 'solution', just likely to encourage fossil fuel users to carry on their activities? 'Greenhouse gas' emissions have other negative effects on human health etc. Using moon dust to protect the Earth seems to be a highly dubious suggestion.

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