Cool it!!
Gregory Benford, physics professor at the university of California at
Irvine, suggests several methods for combating the effects of global
warming by reducing the amount of solar radiation absorbed in the lower
atmosphere and at the earth's surface. Installing white roofs on houses
and using light-colored materials or paint for parking lots and roadways
would increase reflected solar radiation and reduce heat input to the
climate system. Another alternative is to enrich jet fuel mixtures or in
some way increase particulate output of jet engines to produce a layer of
thin artificial clouds in the stratosphere which will reflect just the
right amount of solar radiation to balance CO2 warming. Dr. Benford's
ideas were given in an editorial in the Des Moines Register in early
November 1997.
What would be the ancillary environmental effects of such actions?
Who would decide exactly how much cooling should be engineered (given the
fact that we can't agree on how much warming has been produced)?
Who would take responsibility for the inevitable legal implications if some
subsequent extreme weather events (natural or otherwise) are blamed on this
engineered solution?
Eugene S. Takle
21 November 1997