- Jul 21, 2005
- 12,046
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I cannot find the full episode anywhere online, it was just 'released' on the 12th, so it probably hasn't been uploaded yet.
Reference site
Anyway, I was watching Project Earth: Sunshield the other day. It was a very interesting concept on how to reverse the effects of global warming. Here's basically how they say it can be done.
-If only 2 percent of the sun's rays are redirected, this would be able to bring global temperatures back down to preindustrial eras.
-The original lens was two inches thick and about one foot in diameter. The engineer's idea calls for 16 trillion lenses to be launched. Aside from the costs of labor and production, the cost to launch these lenses would cost one million trillion dollars to launch, which would bankrupt the world's economy for about 200 years.
-The Discovery Project Earth team was able to scale the lenses down to make them 1 micron thick instead of his current two inch think lenses. They were successful in shrinking the lenses on a sheet of silicon.
-In order to get the sun refracting lenses into space, the team first tried to use a coil gun. They proved that the coil gun can work but it uses over 1000Gs of force, which destroyed the test rocket.
Conclusion:
Based on vague, hypothetical ideas, they came to the conclusion that the sunshield would be able to actually reverse global warming but only if our carbon dioxide levels are reduced.
Cliffs:
-Send trillions of tiny lenses that refract the sunlight on Earth, thus reducing the heat on earth by 2% (sends temps back to pre-industrial levels)
-Would cost one million trillion dollars (didn't make that up), and bankrupt the world economy for over 200 years
-They managed to make the lenses 1 micron thick, down from 2 inches
-They did a test launch w/ coil gun, it theoretically will work, but too much force broke the test lens
-end conclusion is that it would actually reverse global warming, but isn't practical right now
Reference site
Anyway, I was watching Project Earth: Sunshield the other day. It was a very interesting concept on how to reverse the effects of global warming. Here's basically how they say it can be done.
-If only 2 percent of the sun's rays are redirected, this would be able to bring global temperatures back down to preindustrial eras.
-The original lens was two inches thick and about one foot in diameter. The engineer's idea calls for 16 trillion lenses to be launched. Aside from the costs of labor and production, the cost to launch these lenses would cost one million trillion dollars to launch, which would bankrupt the world's economy for about 200 years.
-The Discovery Project Earth team was able to scale the lenses down to make them 1 micron thick instead of his current two inch think lenses. They were successful in shrinking the lenses on a sheet of silicon.
-In order to get the sun refracting lenses into space, the team first tried to use a coil gun. They proved that the coil gun can work but it uses over 1000Gs of force, which destroyed the test rocket.
Conclusion:
Based on vague, hypothetical ideas, they came to the conclusion that the sunshield would be able to actually reverse global warming but only if our carbon dioxide levels are reduced.
Cliffs:
-Send trillions of tiny lenses that refract the sunlight on Earth, thus reducing the heat on earth by 2% (sends temps back to pre-industrial levels)
-Would cost one million trillion dollars (didn't make that up), and bankrupt the world economy for over 200 years
-They managed to make the lenses 1 micron thick, down from 2 inches
-They did a test launch w/ coil gun, it theoretically will work, but too much force broke the test lens
-end conclusion is that it would actually reverse global warming, but isn't practical right now
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