Weird Ideas To Save Earth
By Faith Smith
I love disaster films; I just can't get enough of the completely implausible attempts to save the world. My favourite has to be 'The Core' in which the Earth's inner core stops rotating and a team of specialists have to kick-start it by travelling to the centre of the Earth.
But are their plots as far-fetched as we think? Maybe if the core did stop turning we would be able to drill the thousands of miles to the centre of the Earth to rectify the problem? Ok, maybe not. But scientists from NASA are considering using similarly crazy ideas in an effort to combat global warming.
In an act of desperation NASA are finishing a report summing up ideas to lower the Earth's temperature that could quite easily be the plot line of a trashy disaster movie.
Personally, I would love to see a film where a man-made "volcano" shoots gigatons of sulphur high into the air to lower the Earth's temperature before global warming suffocates us all. But I'm not so sure I would like to see this used in real life.
Other ideas include a space "sun-shade" which would turn down the effect of the sun on our planet by two percent (naturally the Null was first on this one). And a plan to dump 50 tons of iron dust into the Pacific to create an algae bloom that would suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Having spent $75,000 alone on mapping out the sun shade concept, NASA is being hit with criticism that the report is being drawn up out of desperation. Stephen Schneider, a professor at Stanford University, said "It's planetary methadone for our planetary heroin addiction. It does come out of the pessimism of any realist that says this planet can't be trusted to do the right thing."
In my opinion, I think NASA should forget these crazy ideas and look at a more sensible plan to reduce carbon dioxide levels - Null Hypothesis' own "breath-a-third-less" initiative!
But are their plots as far-fetched as we think? Maybe if the core did stop turning we would be able to drill the thousands of miles to the centre of the Earth to rectify the problem? Ok, maybe not. But scientists from NASA are considering using similarly crazy ideas in an effort to combat global warming.
In an act of desperation NASA are finishing a report summing up ideas to lower the Earth's temperature that could quite easily be the plot line of a trashy disaster movie.
Personally, I would love to see a film where a man-made "volcano" shoots gigatons of sulphur high into the air to lower the Earth's temperature before global warming suffocates us all. But I'm not so sure I would like to see this used in real life.
Other ideas include a space "sun-shade" which would turn down the effect of the sun on our planet by two percent (naturally the Null was first on this one). And a plan to dump 50 tons of iron dust into the Pacific to create an algae bloom that would suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Having spent $75,000 alone on mapping out the sun shade concept, NASA is being hit with criticism that the report is being drawn up out of desperation. Stephen Schneider, a professor at Stanford University, said "It's planetary methadone for our planetary heroin addiction. It does come out of the pessimism of any realist that says this planet can't be trusted to do the right thing."
In my opinion, I think NASA should forget these crazy ideas and look at a more sensible plan to reduce carbon dioxide levels - Null Hypothesis' own "breath-a-third-less" initiative!
Image: Kilokilo
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