A global warming quick fix?
What do carbon-sucking artificial trees, an ocean floor carpet of iron dust, a man-made sulfur volcano, and a global umbrella all have in common?
According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, these are some of the more bizarre climate proposals circulating in the scientific community. Stanford University professor Stephen Schneider described these measures as desperate responses. "It's planetary methadone for our planetary heroin addiction. It does come out of the pessimism of any realist that says this planet can't be trusted to do the right thing.”
Indeed, sometimes it seems easier to send 16 trillion flat discs into orbit to reflect a percentage of the sun’s incoming rays than to get people and politicians on the earth’s surface to change their carbon habits.
“Sunshade” researcher and University of Arizona astronomer Roger Angel stresses that this multi-trillion dollar project “is no substitute for developing renewable energy, the only permanent solution.”