Nature does the sulfur aerosol experiment for us every couple of hundred years or so.
Nature does the sulfur aerosol experiment for us every couple of hundred years or so. Large volcanic eruptions put far more sulfur in the stratosphere than we are contemplating using. The 1815 Mount Tambora eruption, the largest in recent history, dropped global temperatures by 0.4 to 0.7 °C [0], badly disrupting agriculture. Although the eruption, the tsunami, and the volcanic winter obviously all caused substantial loss of life, it's not clear that there were any long-term global effects besides more colorful sunsets. Also, the half-life of sulfur aerosols in the stratosphere is on the order of a few months. If we overdo it or discover some previously-unsuspected downside, all we have to do is stop, and the effects will fade out in a reasonable amount of time. Caution is certainly warranted, but running away screaming is not. The biggest problem with the sulfur aerosol approach is mentioned in the article: it does nothing to help with ocean acidification, which is also a serious consequence of increasing carbon dioxide concentrations. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer
Posted by ScottBurson on Dec 13, 2014, 1:07 AM
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> Because they don't believe the disasters were inflicted by them.
Hehe, yeah I'm not sure when John Stewart would have worked there or what the pain points were for him, but he worked there for a bit.
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/mxcl3ll/a/magic-keyboard-...
If first-order hybrids made up only a small proportion of the total population of humans and Neanderthals, then the probability that a pa...
Well, I'd be interested to hear what some of those nuances are, personally.
My biggest Amazon annoyance.
> There's not really an unmet need for innovation in broadband delivery; the issue is running new wires broadband has costs, and in a lot...
Speaking of Amazon's account process, I have a really annoying problem with theirs.
Nature does the sulfur aerosol experiment for us every couple of hundred years or so.
Nature does the sulfur aerosol experiment for us every couple of hundred years or so. Large volcanic eruptions put far more sulfur in the stratosphere than we are contemplating using. The 1815 Mount Tambora eruption, the largest in recent history, dropped global temperatures by 0.4 to 0.7 °C [0], badly disrupting agriculture. Although the eruption, the tsunami, and the volcanic winter obviously all caused substantial loss of life, it's not clear that there were any long-term global effects besides more colorful sunsets. Also, the half-life of sulfur aerosols in the stratosphere is on the order of a few months. If we overdo it or discover some previously-unsuspected downside, all we have to do is stop, and the effects will fade out in a reasonable amount of time. Caution is certainly warranted, but running away screaming is not. The biggest problem with the sulfur aerosol approach is mentioned in the article: it does nothing to help with ocean acidification, which is also a serious consequence of increasing carbon dioxide concentrations. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer
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