Geoengineering: A Horrible Idea We Might Have to Do

by the end of the 21st century humanity is becoming desperate decades of heat waves and droughts have led to unusually poor harvests while the warming oceans yield fewer fish each year in the tropical zones millions suffer from famines and resource wars have made millions more flee to the north as things quickly get worse in an act of desperation the world's governments decide to enact an emergency plan it's far from certain that a grim scenario like this will play out but the failure of world leaders to effectively address climate change makes it far from impossible so in the near future it might become necessary to try something radical to slow down rapid climate change geoengineering interventions so massive in scale that they might undo centuries of human behavior or make everything much worse what is geoengineering is it really an option and what if it goes wrong [Music] geo engineering methods vary from fantastic ones like constructing giant light sails in space to seeding clouds with salt or wilder ones like fertilizing the oceans with iron to speed up the growth of trillions of algae cells in this video we'll focus on an intervention we could see during our lifetimes stratospheric aerosol injection a clunky term that means spraying stuff very high up in the atmosphere to keep the sun away keeping the sun away co2 doesn't heat up the planet on its own almost all of the energy on earth comes from the sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation about 71 of this energy is absorbed by the earth's surface and atmosphere this absorbed energy is emitted again as infrared radiation and co2 is able to trap this infrared radiation and keep it in the atmosphere for a while you can compare this effect with snuggling under a blanket in the morning even in a really cold room your body emits infrared radiation and the air between your body and the blanket traps it and creates a warm and comfy feeling so one way to cool down the planet would be to prevent energy from getting trapped under our planet blanket which is already happening naturally about 29 percent of the solar radiation hitting earth is reflected back to space by bright surfaces like ice deserts snow or clouds more reflection less energy less warming we can look at nature for inspiration specifically the 1991 mount pinatubo eruption the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century aside from massive devastation and almost 900 dead scientists noted its strong impact on the global climate the explosion ejected millions of tons of particles and gas as high as the stratosphere which hung around there for a while the stuff that's interesting for geoengineering is sulphur dioxide a nasty smelling and invisible gas high in the atmosphere it produced a haze of sulfuric acid droplets that mixed with water and created giant veils these veils reduced the sunlight reaching earth's surface by roughly one percent global average temperatures dropped by 0.5 degrees celsius it took three years until this cooling effect had stopped humans could imitate this process by injecting sulfur particles directly into the stratosphere according to some scientists this might be surprisingly easy to do and we don't even need a lot of new technology for it according to one study it also might be pretty cheap compared with the costs of rapid climate change a small fleet of specialized aircraft could ascend once a year and distribute aerosols along the equator from where they would be spread around the world projections assume that injecting between five and eight megatons of material per year would reflect enough sunlight to slow down or even stop global warming giving us precious time to transition away from fossil fuels unfortunately there might be a few unhappy side effects there are a number of potential issues with aerosol injections rainfall patterns could change which could negatively affect agriculture and cause famine billions of people could be affected in the worst case also after the 1991 mount pinatubo eruption the acid water veils not only cooled down the surface they also heated up the stratosphere as it turns out acid is bad for the ozone layer and the ozone hole over antarctica was the largest it has ever been injecting sulphur particles over decades could have a similar effect scientists have already suggested using a combination of different minerals that might have much less harmful effects on the ozone layer but more research and experiments need to be done to make sure this could work but even if we don't damage the ozone layer there are other risks politicians and industry might use the cooling effect as an excuse to delay the switch to a carbon neutral economy even if geoengineering slows down global warming humanity is still adding extra co2 to the atmosphere more co2 in the air means that the oceans absorb more co2 which makes them more acidic this is already beginning to be deadly to huge ecosystems like coral reefs and the longer this continues the more severe the effects will be but it gets worse once we start pumping particles into the atmosphere on a massive scale we might be forced to do so for a long time or we could risk a termination shock what that means is that if humanity continues to enrich the atmosphere with co2 but at the same time prevents the planet from heating up by blocking solar radiation we're sitting on a time bomb once we stop geoengineering the natural cycle will take over again and earth would heat up but after a few decades of keeping the planet artificially cold while still releasing massive amounts of co2 it would heat up much much quicker an increase in temperature that would take 50 years today could happen in just 10 years such a temperature shock in such a short time would disrupt every major system on earth so much that it would be impossible to adapt in time the worst case scenario could be dramatic famines and the rapid destruction of ecosystems humanity might survive but the survivors would inhabit an unfamiliar and hostile world the best case scenario is that once the world has finally fully understood the existential danger of rapid climate change geoengineering can buy us a crucial decade or two time to transition our economies and maybe even pull co2 out of the atmosphere maybe with technologies that we'll discuss in a future video conclusion geoengineering is a scary concept it's not a solution to climate change and it might even be a welcome excuse for the fossil fuel industry to delay the end of the fossil fuel age over the last few decades geoengineering has been so controversial that it stopped many scientists from doing the experiments necessary to understand it better but blankly opposing geoengineering is short-sighted the sad truth is we are already running a geoengineering experiment we're testing how fast the world changes if we add about 40 billion tons of co2 each year this experiment is about to get really exciting hopefully we'll never have to use geoengineering but if we need to in the future we better have done the science we better be prepared or a panicking humanity might accidentally press the self-destruct button [Music] you probably won't have to do any of that yourself but who knows better brush up on your science knowledge just in case and our friends at brilliant can help you with that brilliant is a problem-solving website and app that makes science accessible in a practical way more than 60 interactive courses give you the tools to crack problems in maths logic and engineering all by yourself instead of a classic lecture format brilliant uses storytelling code writing and hands-on problems to keep you entertained and engaged this way a small daily challenge can build up to real long-term understanding of science and achieving your stem goals in a nutshell brilliant surprises you and keeps you on your toes all while sneaking some knowledge into your head without you really noticing right up our alley really to get a fresh perspective on science go to brilliant.org nutshell and sign up for free and there's an extra perk for kotzkazak viewers the first 200 people to use the link get 20 off their annual membership which lets you view all the daily problems in the archives and unlock every course brilliant helps you end your day a little smarter still the best preparation for the future we can think of [Music] you

Channel: Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell

Views: 2,351,495

Rating: 4.9242153 out of 5

Keywords: Geoengeneering, climate change, climate crisis, climate, global warming, heat wave, drought, government, world, earth, nature, bush fire, algae, corals, ecosystem, stratospheric aerosol injection, greenhouse effect, CO2, atmosphere, pinatubo, sulfur dioxide, sulfur particles, aerosol, Ozone hole, ozone layer, fossil fuels, coal, oil, natural gas, renewable energy

Id: dSu5sXmsur4

Length: 9min 10sec (550 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 27 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/djbandit]

Geoengineering: A Horrible Idea We Might Have to Do

Description

By the end of the 21st century, humanity is becoming desperate. Decades of heatwaves and droughts have led to unusually poor harvests, while the warming oceans yield fewer fish each year. In the tropical zones, millions suffer from famine and resource wars have made millions more flee to the north. As things quickly get worse, in an act of desperation, the world's governments decide to enact an emergency plan...

It is far from certain that a grim scenario like this will play out. But the failure of world leaders to effectively address climate change, makes it far from impossible. So in the near future it might become necessary to try something radical to slow down rapid climate change: Geoengineering. Interventions so massive in scale that they might undo centuries of human behavior. Or make everything much worse.

What is geoengineering, is it really an option and what if it goes wrong?

Sources & further reading: https://sites.google.com/view/sources...

[u/that_bermudian]

Snowpiercer has entered the chat

[u/lieutenantgame]

The first thing I thought of was Futurama's solution to global warming when I finished this video lmao

[u/frguba]

When it's easier to make planetary scale superprojects than it is to clean the oceans and plant more trees

[u/Gavinwadz]

I was thinking about rapid climate change the other day. I think the main hurdle is that people have come to expect a certain standard of living that includes luxuries. We need to have a large wardrobe of clothes for every occasion rather than a handful of outfits we like. We need to have a large refrigerator stuffed with meat and cheese, when we could just buy ingredients for meal preparation as part of a daily routine.

In my mind, this is also the least solvable problem. Luxury has become the default. And changing people's minds on this is not feasible. On the other hand, I think the counterculture to materialism is growing in this generation. So maybe there's a chance for change.

While I was thinking about these things, I started wondering about the diminishing importance of cities. With the advent of the Internet (and the rapid shift to remote working due to Covid), it's becoming apparent that proximity isn't important for many of the world's jobs. Some companies don't even have a central headquarters; all the employees work from home.

All right, here's the point I'm aiming at. I wonder if it would be beneficial to the environment if we started decentralizing humanity, scattering into smaller "villages" instead of packing into choked cities. Each "village" would need a strong Internet connection, but they might be able to be mostly self-sufficient. People without absurdly advanced skillsets could simply work for the village in construction or farming or something, while others could work remotely.

Imagine if you lived in a community of around 1,000 people, away from any large cities. All of your needs can be found within a radius of a few miles, eliminating the need for everyone to own a personal vehicle. Not only would this decrease the rate of CO2 emissions, but it would allow many people to regain a feeling of importance and contribution to society.

Anyway, this is probably all wishful thinking. But like many people, I'm concerned about the way the world is going. And it will take significant action to make any kind of change.

[u/fuck--this--shit]

We are so fucked. And we're dragging every species down with us. :/

[u/vleessjuu]

One of the major risks of geoengineering is precisely how (relatively) easy it is to do. A single country might decide to take matters into their own hands and screw things up for everyone. The plan to pump a bunch of sulphur into the stratosphere could easily be executed by China alone if they want to and it would be quite difficult to stop them. We really need to form international agreements to prevent this sort of unilateral action.

[u/DonMillsfinest]

Hopefully I'm dead before it gets this bad

[u/Logiman43]

Lol. I'm sure politicians and billionaires won't be using this for some nefarious plots.... /s