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How good is the evidence for sulfur-based climate control? Pumping a bunch of one chemical into the atmosphere is a great way to do something, or perhaps a lot of things all at once. We know what a pre-fossil-fuel planet looks like. We can’t be as confident in geoengineering. Further research will surely mitigate this, except…
A hundred years of climate research hasn’t managed to convince everyone that the problem exists, let alone what to do about it. Science is hard, and it’s harder when there are points to be scored. There’s boundless political capital in opposing any specific solution. Get ready to be branded an ecoterrorist, an atmofascist, a sulfurry.
Given all this, who is going to take the actual steps? Not the one world government. Not a lone superpower, because nuclear weapons are the ultimate veto. If you think Russia is stressed about Ukraine, wait until they hear we’re messing with THE SUN.
There’s always the Elon Musks of the world. But there’s also Sam Bankman-Frieds, convinced their version of the utilitarian calculus says this is the best idea and literally can’t go tits up. How much do you trust them to get it right the first time?
The science is undeveloped. We need to start small and monitor the changes and then iterate. Doing anything else is like trying to build a 3nm processor without first having gone through all the earlier generations. In a word: impossible.
This is of course the biggest hurdle. But the first step is to get people talking about the possibility of solving this. I imagine that, in the end, actions would be performed via a treaty similar to the Paris accords. Russia would be the biggest holdout given that they stand to benefit the most from a warming climate.
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