His solution would see hundreds of rockets filled with sulphur launched into the stratosphere.
1995 Nobel Prize winner Professor Paul Crutzen believes that sulphur particles similar to those erupting from volcanoes could act as a natural cooling device for the planet, by creating a "blanket" that would stop the Sun's rays from reaching the Earth. Check out the story.
Mount Pinatubo ejected about 10,000,000 tons of sulphur into the stratosphere at about 10-40km above the Earth's surface. For two years after Pinatubo erupted, the average temperature across the Earth decreased by 0.6C.
This eruption, while relatively large in magnitude, pales in comparison the truly catastrophic events such as Krakatoa in the 19th century.
His plan ignores the combined effects of the amounts of sulphur currently being injected into the atmosphere, as you read this, by any of the 8-12 volcanoes worldwide that are erupting at any given moment.
Professor Crutzen may have won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, but he is sorely lacking in Mathematics, Logic, and sadly, simple common sense.
The plan is wildly ignorant of what would have to occur logistically and what enormous amounts of capital would be required. A fleet of America's largest payload rocket: the TITAN V - which carries a maximum payload of less than 3 tons - would take Millenia to build. Assuming an extremely and totally unrealistic accelerated lead time of (1) month to build and launch a Titan V, it would take 22,222 years to accomplish only 1/10th of what Pinatubo did in a few weeks.
Do The Math
1- Amount of So2 needed: 1,000,000 tons (2,000,000,000 Lbs)
2- Titan IV Rocket Max Payload: 7,500 Lbs
3- Amount of Launches needed: 266,667
4- Cost of Launch: $110,000,000 USD
5- Cost for So2 shield $293,333,333,000,000 USD
The cost does not take into account the of the sulphur. Launch costs verified at this authoritative website.
All this to reduce the Global Avarage Temperature a mere 0.06C.
Is this guy on RUdy's GW advisory team yet?
Such a scheme would never be done with Titans (for one thing, they're retired, for another, it's not necessary to go all the way to orbit, and it's a very expensive vehicle). It would be done with suborbital reusable vehicles, like the ones currently being developed for space tourism. Their cost per flight, and cost per pound to the upper atmosphere, would be lower by orders of magnitude. It would actually provide a great market for them.
It would be easier and cheaper to coax a volcano into erupting...............perhaps several........
Hey, let's add some potassium nitrate and charcoal. Anyone got a match?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
It was my understanding in order to "Save the World," you have to save the cheerleader. :D
Feeding cattle "Bean-o" would probably have the same effect only be less costly. Of course Al Gore is saving the planet by the purchase of global warming indulgences.
WHY IS THIS GUY WORRIED ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING?
It happens every 1000 or so years like clockwork.
This graph shows the climate history of the last thousand years: clearly depicting the Mediaeval Warm period and the Little Ice Age: it also shows that temperatures are increasing once again.
This rather more sciencematifical one showing the sinusoidal variation in temperature rather more clearly
And this complex set of study results show a variation from mostly warmer (red) temperatures in 1000 AD through a colder (blue) period (1500 AD) to today's hotter/redder periods again. There can be very little doubt about this sinusoidal global warming - but this periodic climate change has nothing whatever to do with CO2 or man's activity. It's completely natural.
-PJ
Global Warming on FreeRepublic
Latest from Global Warming News Site
Latest from Junk Science (scroll down)
Forest Replacing Tundra At Rapid Rate
Couldn't you just let passenger jets user higher sulphur fuel?
Ping to myself for later reading. Although these might be viewed by some as hairbrained, I am glad some thinking is going into this, "just in case". And yes, I have read the "debate" that is going on in here..
Just poke an unstable volcano with a few nukes.
It’s the sun that’s the problem. Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just build a giant polarized lens to shield the earth?
Isn’t this the same guy who wanted to inject methane or kerosene into the atmosphere to restore the ozone layer about 20 years ago?
Anyone that I forgot to mention would at least decide America meant business and sit down and shut up.( Like Mexico and South America)
More evidence of mass hysteria sweeping the country and leading people to suggest crazy things.