- So, let's not address the CAUSE of global warming, let's
rather continue to trash the planet and just put a big shield up in the
sky to make it all better. More idiocy. -ed
- -ed
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- Humanity could not exist without it - yet in an extraordinary
plan that underlines the catastrophic implications of climate change, scientists
now want to curb the Sun's life-giving influence to save mankind from its
biggest threat: global warming.
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- Key talks involving the Government's most senior climate
experts have produced proposals to site a massive shield on the edge of
space that would deflect the Sun's rays and stabilise the climate.
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- Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of metallic 'scatterers'
would be ejected into the upper atmosphere under the plans. In addition,
billions of tiny barrage balloons could serve as a secondary barrier to
block rays from the Earth's nearest star.
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- On land, giant reservoirs holding saline water could
be built to offset the rise in sea levels caused by the melting of the
polar ice-caps. The oceans, too, would be modified to cope with the planet's
increasingly warmer weather. Massive floating cloud-making machines would
be dotted across their surface while, below, large plantations of algae
would be grown to absorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
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- The theories were discussed by Britain's most eminent
climatologists at a meeting in Cambridge last week to analyse the latest
theories to tackle the problem of the planet heating up. They included
the Government's chief scientist, Sir David King, who warned last week
that climate change was the most severe problem facing civilisation.
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- Professor John Schellnhuber, former chief environmental
adviser to the German government and head of the UK's leading group of
climate scientists at the Tyndall Centre, said: 'These are exotic ideas
and we probably will have to come up with the right mixture. But the problem
has not gone away, so we think this analysis is just in time.
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- 'The present climate policy does not seem to be working.
We are not saying we have the magic bullet, but this is a desperate situation
and people should start thinking about the unconventional. Preventative
plans on a larger scale are needed.'
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- Environmentalists maintain that the solutions are so
radical they serve only to underscore how unprepared governments are to
deal with the threat. Last week researchers predicted that a quarter of
land animals and plants will die out because of global warming over the
next 50 years.
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- Scientists, however, argue that until the United States
and Russia ratify international agreements to limit the emission of greenhouse
gases they will have little choice but to explore new methods to save the
planet.
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- Extreme technological fixes include deploying tens of
billions of wafer-thin metal plates less than a centimetre wide into the
Earth's low orbit via space rockets. These would be specially built to
allow space-bound rays to pass while at the same time absorbing a significant
amount of solar energy before bouncing it back into space. They would be
designed to stay in place for a century.
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- Similar solutions include the release of massive nets
of ultra-fine metal mesh into the upper atmosphere by aircraft to prevent
the Sun's rays from reaching Earth. Alternatively, millions of metallic-coated
super-pressure balloons - similar in design to a children's party version,
although a fraction of the size - would be filled with helium and released
until they reach the stratosphere 35,000ft above the Earth. Trapped in
parcels of air, they would stay up for about five years before falling
to earth and being replaced.
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- All the methods are designed to block about 1 per cent
of the Sun's rays, enough to protect at least one million square kilometres
of the Earth and significantly cool the planet.
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- Inspiration came from studying the effects of volcanic
eruptions in Indonesia in 1814. During these explosions, enough material
was spewed into the upper atmosphere to cause temperatures to fall by up
to 30 per cent for almost three years, roughly the amount some predict
that they will rise to by the end of this century.
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- Academics from California's Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, who told government scientists about the billion-pound scheme,
claim it will increase crop yields, because plants would be less damaged
by the Sun's harmful rays. The scheme would create more spectacular sunrises
and sunsets, deeper blue skies and would reduce the cancer risk for sunbathers
and children.
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- Pumping nutrients into the world's oceans remains another
weapon under consideration. This would encourage the growth of vast underwater
algae blooms to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Scientists believe
'large-scale ocean fertilisation' could act as a substitute for the world's
disappearing forests, which act as a huge natural sponge for soaking up
carbon dioxide from the air.
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- Massive floating cloud-making machines could also become
a feature of the oceans. These solar-powered contraptions would spray seawater
droplets of a precise size into the sky to help encourage the formation
of low-level clouds.
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- Other ideas being looked at include the burial of carbon
dioxide emissions underground. Friends of the Earth climate campaigner
Roger Higman said: 'Climate change is the biggest environmental threat
the world faces. It is important for scientists to explore imaginative
ways to tackle its impacts, but technical fixes must not be used as an
excuse for failing to reduce the growing levels of greenhouse gases.'
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- This week the Government will announce how it proposes
to implement the most significant piece of climate change legislation since
the Kyoto protocol, Europe's greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1120510,00.html
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