Global Warming Solution?

[Raiden]

Could iron dust stop global warming in its tracks?

**starts grinding up Iron furiously**

[Ashen Key]

...Yes. Lets just start a new Ice Age. This will SOLVE EVERYTHING.

Or, you know, not.

[Empty Glass]

Well, if this really is a solution, would people take it to mean that it would be okay to still dump ridiculous amounts of carbon in the air? I'm not sure how I feel about that: about taking out any need for a sense of responsibility toward the planet, if that's what this would do. But I am intrigued by any kind of carbon extraction plan.

(By the way, one of the comments in that article links to another one that I nearly posted here, just because it bewildered me so much. Instead, this [in another comment] seems better and raises a few points I meant to say.)

[Raiden]

Originally Posted by Ashen Key

...Yes. Lets just start a new Ice Age. This will SOLVE EVERYTHING.

Or, you know, not.

That isn't necessarily the idea.

They just know that Iron leads to phytoplankton blooms, and therefore there is a way to help control Carbon if we want to try it.

As for what Empty Glass said, yeah, I thought of that too. Either this will be awesome, or it will make big business rationalize the use of dirtier systems because "we can fix it later anyway".

One thing that came to mind was dumping a bunch of Iron in the South Pacific, causing the Arctic to cool, and therefore executing a massive cockblock against that British guy who wants to make a giant mine in the polar Atlantic area.

[Tsyal Makto]

Interesting.

But yeah, I have the same worries as Empty Glass. We still need to make fundamental changes to our society and economy to bring us more in line with nature, not just look for ways to prop up the status quo.

[Ashen Key]

Originally Posted by Raiden

That isn't necessarily the idea.

They just know that Iron leads to phytoplankton blooms, and therefore there is a way to help control Carbon if we want to try it.

As for what Empty Glass said, yeah, I thought of that too. Either this will be awesome, or it will make big business rationalize the use of dirtier systems because "we can fix it later anyway".

One thing that came to mind was dumping a bunch of Iron in the South Pacific, causing the Arctic to cool, and therefore executing a massive cockblock against that British guy who wants to make a giant mine in the polar Atlantic area.

It will lead to big business saying 'we can fix it later'. And I guess I'm just also REALLY wary of trying to fix climate change by adding OTHER things to the balance. We don't actually want the planet to get colder, either - because hi, Ice Age. Ice Ages aren't good.

And then you get the idiots who think that blowing up volcanoes to provide cloud cover to cool the planet is a GOOD IDEA, and I despair at the human race.

[applejuice]

Should the proposed solution put in practice, the most likely thing to happen is this:

• Iron is spread to oceans
• Plankton starts to massively proliferate
• Carbon levels go down
• Earth cools
• Earth becomes too cold to support plankton
• Plankton dies
• Massive release of carbon
• Global warming

and so on...

[Raiden]

Originally Posted by applejuice

Should the proposed solution put in practice, the most likely thing to happen is this:

• Iron is spread to oceans
• Plankton starts to massively proliferate
• Carbon levels go down
• Earth cools
• Earth becomes too cold to support plankton
• Plankton dies
• Massive release of carbon
• Global warming

and so on...

That's a good point, but the idea was to use it in moderation to create a slight cooling. Making another ice age out of it would be foolhardy.

Also, the Earth cannot be too cold to support phytoplankton. Phytoplanktonic organisms can survive in very cold water, and when you consider that this happens in the South Pacific/Atlantic ocean to begin with, they're probably pretty tolerant to cold temperatures.

[iron_jones]

Originally Posted by Raiden

**starts grinding up Iron furiously**

Ouch!

[Pa'li Makto]

I'm unsure on this..
I think we should use less private transport and rely more on public transport. Of course there are always problems associated with this such as proximity to public transport, health concerns and so on.

[iron_jones]

Even then, so much damage has already been done can it even be reversed if everyone just stopped driving their damn vee-hickles?

[Pa'li Makto]

Who knows but it's worth a try.

[Raiden]

Originally Posted by iron_jones

Even then, so much damage has already been done can it even be reversed if everyone just stopped driving their damn vee-hickles?

It would, but unfortunately procrastination seems to be a part of human nature.

[iron_jones]

Originally Posted by Raiden

It would, but unfortunately procrastination seems to be a part of human nature.

Indeed.
Takes me two months to register for vocal lessons, bruh.

[applejuice]

All good points. We really need more investigation on global warming and climate change (in whatever order you prefer, lol). There really is something fundamentally unknown in the mechanism of global warming we still don't understand, the trend seems to be very chaotic. Once discovered, then we will know for certain what choices we have to make to revert or if we won't have any.