Russian scientists have found a way to prevent global warming of the Earth, the director of the Global Climate and Ecology Institute said Wednesday. Russian Academy of Sciences Academic Yury Izrael told a news conference that the method envisions air spraying of a sulfur-containing aerosol in lower stratosphere layers at a height of 10-14 kilometers (six to 10 miles). Sulfur drops would then reflect solar radiation.According to scientists, one million tons of aerosol sprayed above the planet would make possible a reduction of solar radiation by 0.5-1%, and a reduction of air temperature by 1-1.5 degrees Celsius.
Izrael said the method demands more detailed development, and that a relevant decision on the international level should be made for it to come into force.
He also said the Russian scientists’ method will make the fight against warming faster and cheaper. “It is also good that it can be stopped at any moment,” Izrael said.
Maybe this loses something in the translation?
I have the solution. Fans. Lots and lots of fans. Vent the gases out into space.
Great. Now I can go outside and take a deep breath of fresh rotten eggs.
I think that all options – no wacky they might sound – should be presented and the scientific community should be able to come to some conclusions of the best approach to slow or halt global warming. Then it’s up to the Governments to implement this.
This idea was also proposed about a year ago by Professor Paul Crutzen, who won the Nobel Prize for his work relating to the hole in the ozone layer.
My first question is, what’s the possibility that the sulfur will combine with water and oxygen in the atmosphere and cause a potentially huge problem with acid rain? I’m neither a Nobel laureate nor a chemist, so maybe this is a silly question born of ignorance.
The many references I’ve heard to the previous global cooling trend having been reversed as emissions of particulates into the atmosphere were reduced in the 70’s does suggest the potential for this style of solution, though. As always, the trick is in finding a solution with no unintended catastrophic consequences.
Not sure of my chemistry but on one end, reduce the so called glabal warming, on the other, create acid rain?
6. And burn more coal to offset a 1% efficiency drop in solar energy farms.
RBG
nono, thats it! thats the answer!
dont you see? by dumping all that sulfur in the stratosphere
it’ll create acid rain and kill us all… thereby removing the primary source of premature global warming.
Brilliant!
-s
#8 – you’ve stumbled upon the real issue for these folks: Mankind is evil and must be eliminated.
Somehow I don’t see governments stepping in and providing a solution or managing one someone else comes up with. It’s up to us to do whatever we can with what we have and what we know, on an individual level.
In Soviet Russia, global warming denies you!
It would be much better to use aluminum particles. . .you know, like the US is openly doing. You remember when plane contrails used to, you know, dissipate, rather than cover the sky in a white haze? Ah, the good old days.
In the USA gov…They wont Believe ANYONE, until some US scientist comes up with teh SAME idea, 30 years LATER, then anyone elses Idea.
It is interesting about the particulate reduction in the 70″s to raise the temp when the **catastrophe** du jour was a new ice age, and the rise in global warming.
Didn’t the temp rise that GW by humans believers, suddenly stop for a period of years? Didn’t that coincide with the years that heavey industrial output of sulpher was the norm….leading to the conclusion we were heading into an ice age.
It’s all clear to me now.
All technological problems have technological solutions that inescapably create further technological problems. Jacques Ellul said that (only in, you know, French) back in 1949 or so. Dumping gazillions of tons of sulfure into the upper atmosphere strikes me as a great way to test Ellul’s assertion. Though he probably won’t care since he’s dead.
The Russians are just trying to save the world from the robots taking over by blocking their access to the sun – the source of the majority of their power.
We all know how that turns out… (one good and two not so good movies).
(My first non-serious post here)
Regards,
Shane.
Environmentalists will never accept this or any other technological solution. Just look at the reaction to the President’s proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the top 15 emitting countries. For the enviro-crazies, it’s all about changing people’s lifestyles into their preferred way.
Technology can solve many problems. It usually also creates new ones. For example, in the early 20th century, cars were seen as the solution to New York City’s horse problem (much shit, smell, & noise). This worked. NYC is not covered with shit and we do not hear the clip clop of horse hooves all day and night. However, now we have bus fumes and global warming.
My point is this. This cannot possibly be a solution that does not cause an even bigger problem than it purports to solve. When that sulfur mixes with atmospheric water, the acid rain will be a nice dilute solution of H2SO4, a.k.a. sulfuric acid, a.k.a. battery acid. Someone please correct me if I’m incorrect in this possibility. But this seems like a Bad Idea to me, despite my belief that global warming is truly catastrophic.
Frig, Shane got to my comment before me – incidentally, which of the three was the good movie? I’ve heard nearly as many opinions as people.
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to nuke all the active volcanoes on the planet?
#18, Scott, I think it takes sulfur dioxide (SO2) to combine with water (H2O) to make H2SO4, but John C. is a chemist. What about it, JCD?
As usual, econuts have no sense of proportion. The article talks of one million tons of SO2 aerosol sprayed worldwide at 40,000 feet, and you people fear acid rain will kill us all. I got news for you idiots — the US alone emits ten million tons annually!
By the way, if industrial pollution during the 50’s and 60’s caused global cooling during that period, then why are we not experiencing any cooling from the prodigious pollution being emitted by China and India?
#22, and China approximately twice that. A lot of the US SO2 is absorbed by lime in power plant scrubbers to make calcium sulfite, CaSO3. Add a little oxidation and you get CsSO4, gypsum. Pretty cool.
The Russians aren’t quite as nutty as you thought. Per Wikipedia:
When Mt. Pinatubo erupted in 1991, “20 million tons of SO2” got dumped into the atmosphere. “Global temperatures dropped by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F), and ozone destruction increased substantially.” Ozone destruction is not so good, but the global temperature drop was probably caused by the SO2. I remember the cold winters that occurred afterwards. More at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pinatubo
#22 – Smith,
By the way, if industrial pollution during the 50’s and 60’s caused global cooling during that period, then why are we not experiencing any cooling from the prodigious pollution being emitted by China and India?
Because Europe and the U.S. cleaned up a tremendous amount of it, thus ending global cooling, and because we emit so much more CO2 now that we are overpowering any of the effects of global dimming.
That said, global dimming was one of the reasons that we underestimated the effects of CO2 and are now experiencing greater global warming than earlier models predicted.
They need to eliminate paintball – think of all the CO2 coming out of those guns.
what about all the nuclear testing done in the last 50 or 60 years hmm, the russians exploded the largest nuke the world has ever known on some island in the arctic, i wonder how much ice was melted and air warmed that day……
Finely powered magneium oxide would work much better. It is used as a pigment in white paint. It would also neutralize sulfulric acid droplest to produce epsom salt.