I have to say, in this case I rather agree with the people who are horrified at the idea of deliberately fouling the atmosphere for short-term gain. It would be difficult to find a better example of “unintended consequences,” both ecological and political, as they point out. That is a weapon of war.
- Imagine if, during the nastiest days of the Cold War, instead of propping up our Necessary Enemy with massive annual grain handouts “on credit,” some clothhead had blown reflective aerosol particles into the stratosphere and cut their sunlight by 10%, plunging most of Russia and China - and Japan too! - into a massive Siberian winter, Antarctic temperatures for months. Guess what would happen next.
“What’s the plan now, genius?!”
(“We own the day, Charlie owns the night” - During the salad days of our involvement in what our own Secretary of Defense said we could not win by anything short of nuclear carpet-bombing, but which was “useful for domestic politics,” particularly jobs, the idea was floated to launch another Echo II satellite - followed by, oh, say, maybe fifty more… The cumulative result would shine reflected sunlight from the sky several times brighter than the full Moon, banishing darkness across SE Asia and everywhere else also for years. As you say, cheap and effective! The measure was not adopted; both astronomy and public opinion of the USA survived - that, at least.)
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I have to say, in this case I rather agree with the people who are horrified at the idea of deliberately fouling the atmosphere for short-term gain. It would be difficult to find a better example of “unintended consequences,” both ecological and political, as they point out. That is a weapon of war.
- Imagine if, during the nastiest days of the Cold War, instead of propping up our Necessary Enemy with massive annual grain handouts “on credit,” some clothhead had blown reflective aerosol particles into the stratosphere and cut their sunlight by 10%, plunging most of Russia and China - and Japan too! - into a massive Siberian winter, Antarctic temperatures for months. Guess what would happen next.
“What’s the plan now, genius?!”
(“We own the day, Charlie owns the night” - During the salad days of our involvement in what our own Secretary of Defense said we could not win by anything short of nuclear carpet-bombing, but which was “useful for domestic politics,” particularly jobs, the idea was floated to launch another Echo II satellite - followed by, oh, say, maybe fifty more… The cumulative result would shine reflected sunlight from the sky several times brighter than the full Moon, banishing darkness across SE Asia and everywhere else also for years. As you say, cheap and effective! The measure was not adopted; both astronomy and public opinion of the USA survived - that, at least.)