February 07, 2008

Thermostat Please

After reading this tale of upcoming solar cooling, it seems obvious that we don't have a clue as to major non-anthropogenic inputs into our climate. Were we to drop the political fight to change global industry and arrest the entry of the third world into the first world, we might just instead have enough money to fund and deploy a global thermostat that could adjust effective solar input by a combination of mirrors shifting extra sunlight towards the earth and shades blotting out undesired solar radiation.

It would be a multi-decade project and we'd need some sort of decent formula to decide how to *set* the thermostat but it would have the distinct advantage of short-circuiting the acrimonious debate by changing the shape of the anti-coalition. The new anti-action coalition would be shrunk as we would have one single discrete project that could be dialed to change its effects from subtracting warmth to adding warmth within the course of a day.

In short, it could mean that the costs of early mistakes wouldn't be borne for generations but rather for weeks or months, a much more acceptable solution.

HT: Instapundit

Posted by TMLutas at February 7, 2008 08:12 AM