Geoengineering

Elling,
We got back to your topic, with an answer to your question "Is it just utopian to adjust the Earth's axis of rotation . . . ?". And the answer is:

No, it may also be dystopian! And Yes, as you ended:
"I guess the energy question needs to be solved first."

How do you feel about that Elling, these answers, and the thread getting back to your topic?

Climate is a very complicated subject.

My understanding is that the ice ages follow from the ~40k years oscillations of the tilt and the eccentricity. The tilt is most probably caused by celestial mechanics and once in a while the ice cap survives the melting at max tilt. Superposed on the fundamental cause of climate are all kind of more short term dynamics : volcanic activity, ocean currents, solar intensity, green house gases, vegetation spread

Now, given some kind of infinite energy source and common sense global governance, I guess mankind still could geoengineer the weather both locally and globally. Pump water or heat to the poles and the glaciers, green the desert, reduce C02 emissions, deploy solar sails to regulate the influx

I'm depressed that the best physicians are tied up in manned space flights, Cadarache, quantum and relativity orthodoxy. In these dangerous times though, I think defence spending is a necessary evil.

We need a gazillion project for climate and energy with Manhattan urgency and Apollo zeal. The scarce resources are insightful politicians and ambitious scientists..







Elling

Elling,
Such things as your "gazillion project for climate and energy with Manhattan urgency and Apollo zeal" only ever really happen, that is with real effect, like producing the A-bomb, putting men on the moon and so on, in response to catastrophe, because everything, including life itself, is fundamentally catastrophic.

Elling, If you want ti reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and lower the temperature of the planet to offset the greenhouse effect you can do it. The way is by growing plants. As you may know plants absorb CO2 and solar energy. So, if you grow plants you are reducing the CO2 level and lowering the Earth's temperature at the same time.

And there are lots of sunny places, where we could grow lots more trees, like in Australia where the World Record rate of planting them was recently broken, >13,000/hour. But my impression is that too many Science eggs are being put into the Anthropogenic CO2 basket, obviously a PC decision by Science Administrators. H2O is the most potent climate change chemical.

The warming effect of jet aircraft contrails is too persistently labeled a local effect when it could be global. There's been a big increase in high altitude cirrus cloud cover over the last 5 years. Why couldn't this be a major contributor to Global Warming and ultimately due to increasing jet aircraft traffic?

Another egg being excluded from the Climate Change basket is the possibility that diminished volcanic activity might be an important contributor to Global Warming via clearer skies. Volcanic dust has a cooling effect. And the cause of this indicated by my ebook theory may be man-made damming of rivers. I propose that regional correlations be looked for between dams and tectonic activity:

Rivers are generally major, very deep faultlines, as I explain in Vol y of my ebook at www.nodrift.com (demonstrate in its Congo, Amazon and Orinoco Vol y Slide Shows), while lakes behind dams are generally deep and extensive. This combination suggests the possibly of a significant associated diminution of tectonic activity due to a contemporary man-made Freeze Effect, paper 3.3 page 4, which may well show up in correlations between damming and tectonic activities.

Yes Elling, the biggest problem where you¡¯re headed might be Science organisational . . . Climate Change Science (like most other Science, unfortuneately) has become over-organised, stuffy, narrow-minded at its highest levels.

So my advice to young scientists is to Google on Michels and "The Iron Rule of Oligarchy" before you do your Science, rather than afterwards. Good Science career advice I learned by not doing . . . So, don't do what I did, do as I say!