Thinking Big

[selenite0]

Rarely has this icon been more appropriate.

celticdragonfly wants me to share the conversation we had over lunch yesterday. I mentioned something about global warming uncertainties and she complained about the arrogance of people who think humans can precisely control the planet:

celticdragonfly: "Why not just change the orbit while you're at it? You can move the planet away from the Sun and cool it off that way."
selenite: Pause for thought. "Hmmm . . . find a big asteroid in an eccentric orbit and give it a kick at aphelion. Make it do a fly-by of the Earth and it'll perturb the orbit. That'd be the best leverage."
celticdragonfly: "Kick it how?"
selenite: "If you give me the combined nuclear arsenals of the planet, no problem."
celticdragonfly: "Oh, great, light off a rocket under them, that'll be safe." Sees my expression. "No, you're going to use Orion, aren't you?"
selenite: "If I've already got the nukes, why not?"
celticdragonfly: "Nuclear winter, that'll stop global warming."
selenite: "Hey! Orion is clean. It's much less polluting than using them for a war. Most of nuclear winter is the smoke from burning cities. Now if you want a nuclear winter, use the nukes to set off a volcano."
celticdragonfly: "One right next to some peaceful aboriginal people? Oh, that'll go over really well."
selenite: "Well, Mount Rainier would take out Seattle . . . or there's the Yellowstone Caldera. That'd give you a chance to relieve pressure and maybe save the whole continent from a disaster."
celticdragonfly: "I'd like to see you tell an environmentalist that you're going to solve global warming by setting off a nuke in Yellowstone."

Comments

[selenite.livejournal.com]

It'd call for a major trade study, to be sure.

[aeddie.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, we could also look at Fuji. Cool the climate and help our trade balance in one shot.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

2006 trade deficits:
Japan: $88b
China: $232b

You'd want to try this list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_volcanoes_in_China

[aeddie.livejournal.com]

Forgot about the Chinese volcanoes. Much better choice. And we could call it punishment for tainted food and toys.

[faxpaladin.livejournal.com]

Love the icon.

[thegameiam.livejournal.com]

That's hilarious.

I assume you've read Niven's World out of Time, right?

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but that tech is a bit out of our current reach. ;)

[thegameiam.livejournal.com]

for now...

[selenite.livejournal.com]

That's why I prefer using nukes on volcanos. Control.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Hey now! Hands off of Mt Rainer! :-)

Seriously though, some of the southern hemesphere volcanoes may do a better job. Example - Krakatoa

[a-steep-hill.livejournal.com]

You're dangerously close to breaking your own no-politics rule here. But what the hey, I'll bite. By arrogance of people who think humans can precisely control the planet, are you referring to environmentalists, or to the would-be geoengineers who want to dump iron in the ocean and sulphur in the upper atmosphere so that we can keep burning coal?

For what it's worth, I don't know of any environmentalists who think we can "precisely control the planet" or who think we need to do so, for that matter. The feedback systems already in place do a pretty good job, as long as you don't perturb the system too badly.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

It's referring to the people who think any deviation from the previous value must be the result of human action.

[a-steep-hill.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, I can assure you that whatever changes we have wrought, they are neither precise, nor a manifestation of anything that could reasonably be called control (i.e. something with a feedback loop that modulates the input).