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I assume other people have put thought into this but just as your standard braindead engineer I see some problems with dimming the sun. Some big ones:

1: it would make solar less effective so we'll have a harder time reducing our fossil fuel usage

2: fossil fuels will actually run out at a certain point, and we'd still be stuck with a dim sun but without the warming effects of fossil fuels

3: engineering is a process of trial and error, and we can't afford to try this and fuck it up



1. SRM will reduce efficiency of equatorial solar but minimally effect solar in northern climes. Like, less than 5% reduction. Pretty good trade off for stabilizing temperatures.

SRM from lofting sulfur or calcium only lasts about a year. It has to be done yearly. So, no long term effects, for better or worse.

2: We will fry the planet long before running out of fossil fuels. There is a lot left.

3: we absolutely can and must try geoengineering at small scales before scaling up. It isn’t a binary phenomenon. Every time there is a volcanic event, we get a natural experiment.




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