Can we stop Earth from heating up?

[admin]

A high-altitude balloon mission would investigate a controversial way to reduce global temperatures.

Can we stop Earth from heating up? : Read more

 

[Broadlands]

The short answer is NO. "To prevent the worst effects of climate change, the world needs to decrease net emissions of carbon dioxide to zero by 2050."

Decreasing NET emissions means employing industrial carbon capture and permanent geological burial. Unless this process can take very much more than one part-per-million from the atmosphere... and do it without using carbon fuels in the process , the answer is still NO. Certainly not by 2050. Geoengineering the atmosphere with man-made aerosols suffers the same problems. In the end all of these solutions would require "replenishment" and renewables take no CO2 out nor can they make the necessary global transportation possible. We will be using fossil fuels for a very long time. The only rational answer is adaptation, not "urgent" carbon dioxide mitigation. The climate might even start cooling again as it has done many times in the past.

 

[Roj5]

It will be very difficult to tell developing countries they cannot utilise a push in advancement enjoyed in the 19th century by America and Europe.

On an ethical issue, the boom in population in Africa as infrastructure supports a larger population and the associated farming and CO2 increases must be concerning - Many of us here were shocked at the Ethiopian famine in 1984 where a population of 40m could not be supported but the population now stands at 120m with requests to continue the support ongoing.