Remove Atmosphere Remove Cooling Remove Technology
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A Dangerous Disruption

Legal Planet

Last week, MIT’s “Technology Review” reported that a small startup firm is proposing to spray reflective aerosols in the stratosphere commercially as a climate corrective. First, the cooling from the reflective materials they will inject, for which they are already selling carbon credits, charging $10 per gram of SO 2 released (!)

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How not to science

Real Climate

I had reason to be reviewing the history of MSU satellite retrievals for atmospheric temperatures recently. It’s a fascinating story of technology, creativity, hubris, error, imagination, rivalry, politics, and (for some) a search for scientific consilience – worthy of movie script perhaps?

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Higher-altitude solar geoengineering brings no cost benefit, study predicts

Physics World

Solar geoengineering offers a way of mitigating the effects of global warming by reflecting incoming sunlight back into space – thereby cooling the Earth. One way of doing this is to inject aerosols into the atmosphere. To maintain a 1 °C cooling effect, this would cost about $43bn per year to operate. Longer lasting.

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The Climate Overshoot Commission Releases its Report

Legal Planet

To give the Commission credit where due — and it is due in many places — on one point closely related to these projections, they were uncommonly and admirably frank: Noting the risks and the stark tradeoffs posed by aerosol pollution in the lower atmosphere. Current and coming advances in carbon-free technology will help, of course.

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Solar-powered harvesters could produce clean water for one billion people

Physics World

Addressing this serious problem using existing technologies is a key part of the United Nation’s sustainable development goals – with the organization declaring that everyone should have access to five litres of safe drinking water every day. The lack of access to safely managed drinking water now affects some 2.2 billion people worldwide.

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Ask a Scientist: Gas Plants Disproportionately Harm Marginalized Communities

Union of Concerned Scientists

Responsible for 12 percent of all US global warming emissions from human activities, methane traps significantly more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide, making it 86 times more harmful for the first 20 years after it is released into the atmosphere. VY: Clean energy sources will be absolutely pivotal for an equitable and reliable grid.

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Delayed harm and the politics of climate change, reconsidered

Legal Planet

Does the climate keep warming, stay the same, or even cool? First, after carbon dioxide emissions cease, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels begin to decrease, as they are absorbed by natural processes and sinks in the oceans and on land. But what happens when we achieve the goal of zero carbon dioxide emissions from human actions?