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> 3. Could pretyy easily cause anotger ice age if miscalculated Could they? At least for stratospheric aerosol injection it would be easy to just stop doing it
by vosper 1y ago
> 3. Could pretyy easily cause anotger ice age if miscalculated
Could they? At least for stratospheric aerosol injection it would be easy to just stop doing it if things seemed like they were tipping. It doesn't happen _that_ fast, we'd have time to notice and react.
- nine_k 1y agoIt depends on how badly we may miscalculate the aerosol deterioration rate. If we inject a bit too much and it stubbornly stays airborne, that would be a hard geoengineering problem to tackle! I'd say that things are not bad enough for anyone with the means to take the risk. When the things get bad enough for the Overton window to admit geoengineering, it may be too late for simple and affordable solutions, as usual.
- wiml 1y agoWe have some experimental data on this, though, since jetliners and volcanoes both inject sulfur into the stratosphere. The global air traffic halt of 2001 and the aftereffects of eruptions have been heavily studied. (It would be ironic if the world's response to fossil CO2 emission is to mandate extra high sulfur jet fuel, but nothing would surprise me)
- peterbecich 1y agoAnother example is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer caused by the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora
- jonstewart 1y agoI wonder whether you have studied what happened in the past several centuries after major volcanic eruptions.