Topic > Geoengineering and the Global Climate Crisis - 1868

Does one ever think about the potential catastrophic damage they are causing by turning on the lights or using their car? Don't we want a world where our grandchildren and great-grandchildren can live safely and comfortably? At the current rate this will not be possible; we have added more than 1.4 trillion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) in just two hundred years, and this is ruining our planet (Siegel 1). The use of fossil fuels has greatly increased the amount of atmospheric and oceanic CO2 to a point where it is ruining the natural flow of the world; the earth's temperature is rising. As a result, the polar ice caps are melting, causing seas to rise. With just a 3-foot rise in sea level, the United States alone could lose over 10,000 square miles of land and thousands of homes would be destroyed. The effects will be equally evident throughout the world: many islands will be submerged, 17% of Bangladesh will be submerged and tens of thousands of people will be displaced (“Global Warming” 3). It will not only be catastrophic for humans, but animal and plant life will also suffer (“Global Warming” 4, 10, Than 1-4). The oceans will become more polluted and warmer, causing the death of fish and coral reefs (“Global Warming” 4). The heat will drive animals to extinction; their migration patterns will be altered, their diet will change, and it will force them to live in different places to find a suitable climate (Di 1). Furthermore, warming will damage agricultural production. Crops have a very specific temperature range in which they should grow to maximize their yield, and if the land temperature is above that temperature, crop yield will suffer. Projections for the year 2050 show...... half of the document ......9). The proposal involves ships blowing microscopic-sized droplets of seawater into the air and using the Twomey effect to increase reflectivity; the water uses salt as its nucleus and when the small drops of water reach the level of the clouds, they will bind to the existing clouds, increasing the amount of water in the cloud, and therefore making it more reflective (I 2). The plan also requires ships to sail against the wind and therefore not contribute to the production of CO2. Additionally, these ships could be used to target specific areas that need to be cooled as soon as possible: above the polar ice caps and near coral reefs. This proposal has the ability to “keep the earth's temperature constant for many decades” (Schneider 9), through the possibility of adding more ships to meet our CO2 production, in a very natural and relatively economical way: a proposal of 1, 5-3 million dollars per ship.