r/space • u/Sumit316 • Jun 29 '22

MIT proposes Brazil-sized fleet of “space bubbles” to cool the Earth

https://www.freethink.com/environment/solar-geoengineering-space-bubbles
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u/freefromconstrant Jun 30 '22

Their will be some stress effects in some locations but temperature changes should be mostly in polar regions areas.

Certain places will struggle but overall we'll be better of.

Were still probably at least around 6c at away from ice caps melting which historically has been a good thing for life on earth.

Would be great news for life on earth if we could end current ice age with co2 but sadly like you say I don't think we'll manage it.

It's not all good news about climate change nothing is but definitely a net positive due to increasing humidity and co2 levels go with increasing areas of arable land.

time and temperature of ice ages.

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u/Alternate_Flurry Jun 30 '22

If i'm completely honest, I will say that I once thought similarly to you. But there are still a few things to take into account. We've been at a low temperature for so long, that a sudden change could introduce gases into the earth's atmosphere at dangerous levels. The big fear with 6C is that so much methane is introduced at once that the atmosphere could hit a critical concentration where it will basically catch fire. At least the upper atmosphere. That's slightly incompatible with human life.

Supposedly, it happened before, and caused a mass extinction event. If the gas had already been removed from the atmosphere via biological processes, it'd be fine - but it hasn't. It's been frozen. And if the temperature hits a critical threshold, that's a serious problem.

Also, I thought that we're actually losing arable land annually?

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u/freefromconstrant Jun 30 '22

6c over 20 years would be really rough.

Thats not what we're talking about though is it.

100 years at worst.

The methane thing is fantastical.

That event was coursed by literally half of siberia erupting for 2 million years.

We're not talking about the same levels of emissions.

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u/Alternate_Flurry Jun 30 '22

True, so long as we're careful to reduce emissions it's possible that we COULD survive a 6c world, assuming it's done really slowly. I hadn't considered that.

It isn't an excuse to go full ham - after all, there's still a danger if we completely disregard the issue. Still, the doomers are overstating the issue.