How to stop climate change? We put giant bubbles between the Earth and the Sun
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) came up with a publishable proposal while working on ways to alleviate the effects of ongoing climate change. They designed a plan in which a massive number of enormous bubbles deliberately placed between the Earth and the Sun would redirect sunlight (and hence heat) and prevent further global warming.
"What are our emergency solutions if climate change has gone too far?" On a website dedicated to space bubbles, scientists are asking. They themselves concur that geoengineering, a combination of new technologies that can modify the environment and partially mitigate some of the effects of climate change, may be our only option.
They also argue that the majority of the recommendations are related to the Earth, which poses a significant risk to our living ecosystem. Space solutions could be far more secure. We could, for example, entirely reverse today's global warming if we deflected 1.8 percent of the sun's rays before they touched our globe.
"We have produced a novel method that is easy to deploy and totally reversible, building on the work of Roger Angel, who originally designed the utilization of thin reflective coatings in space." These are solar-reflecting bubbles that have already been tested in laboratories by scientists.
Bubbles might be created in space, creating a vast reflecting surface near the Lagrange point between the Earth and the Sun, where gravitational forces form a stable orbit.
The technological and sociological aspects of this planetary project are being worked on by an interdisciplinary team of MIT scientists from architecture, civil and mechanical engineering, physics, and materials sciences.
The bubble array would be made of inflatable shields made of thin silicon or another appropriate material. The researchers stated in a press release that if this plan is implemented, the completed system will be roughly the size of Brazil.
One of the primary issues with the overall design is the logistics of producing a huge film, transporting it into space, and then distributing it in a bubble shape.
Production in space appears to be optimal due to reduced transportation costs. Because the bubbles may be readily removed by puncturing them, the technique is totally reversible and would drastically reduce space debris.
The planned space bubbles have been defined by MIT researchers as something to supplement previous attempts to prevent climate change, but it is still a speculative idea, and there are other options available at the moment.
If there existed the political will, financial resources, and technology for such a solution, it should be able to block new oil and gas projects, for example.
Post by: Bryan C.
