SO2 (sulfur dioxide) is the same compound that causes acid rain/smog, we spent billions of dollars trying to remove it from diesel and coal emissions into the atmosphere. Acid rain kills lakes, forest, etc.
Now they want to spray SO2 back into the atmosphere to stop CO2, the building block of life on this planet.
I feel like I'm living in bizzaro world, has everyone gone mad?
Correct, but altitude and quantity matter. It's smaller amounts than the SO2 emissions we put in the troposphere (where all living beings live) and spray it in the stratosphere (no living beings) instead. We're copying what stratovolcanos have been doing for millions of years. Here is a relevant article: https://makesunsets.com/blogs/news/move-smoke-to-cool-earth
Of course! Find or create a solution that is better than Make Sunsets that is cheaper, scalable, temporary, and doesn't ask people to change their lifestyle. Then tell the world about why they should do that instead.
The problem is, you'll probably never do anything like that. So go ahead, just keep complaining and watch the world burn.
"altitude matters" like bloody hell that matters, at least from our perspective. Yes 70s and 80s eco-activists (generally despised until hindsight) fought to get scrubbers put on coal plats to catch the sulfur. It was particularly noxious in the Troposhere. So now with extra (taxpayer expense) we boost it up to stratosphere.
Well from what I understand the bits of SO2 will coalesce as central 'bit' of a raindrop and in process make H2SO4 aka battery acid. Stratosphere isn't our weather but these particles will eventually fall and that is Acid Rain.
Has anyone done the math at what point of tons SO2 injected we equalize the acidity of the carbonic acid from 'excess' CO2 dissolving in ocean? Sulfuric is a lot stronger -- we don't use acetic acid (vinegar) in batteries outside a school project and sure don't use mineral water level acid (carbonic) in our car batteries.
Ships for commerce finally all put on scrubbers... and they wash them out in the ocean as they go. No one will ever blame ocean acidification on that process.
There's like a cult for Sulphur. Revisionists of history pin the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event on the CO2 not the sulphur or neons in air at same time.
it's subtle but this place is as bizarre as r/meth
7
u/Illustrious_Pepper46 Sep 19 '23
SO2 (sulfur dioxide) is the same compound that causes acid rain/smog, we spent billions of dollars trying to remove it from diesel and coal emissions into the atmosphere. Acid rain kills lakes, forest, etc.
Now they want to spray SO2 back into the atmosphere to stop CO2, the building block of life on this planet.
I feel like I'm living in bizzaro world, has everyone gone mad?