In the face of perils brought on by climate change, human thinking follows a digressive pattern: concern, solution, doubt, super-grandiose schemes, then back to concern, becoming slightly more intense and less hopeful with each cycle. After a period of attempting to reform our over-consumptive lifestyles, we’ve finally reached the valid realization that we just won’t go through with it. It’s time for something extravagant.
Since buying time for us to adjust to our more earth-friendly lifestyle is the real goal here, scientists have taken to coming up with temporary solutions. No need to measure environmental impact, long term feasibility, or any of those bothersome assessments. The first step is to think big: like, Lex Luthor big. We’re talking giant mirrors in space to reflect excess heat from the sun back into the cosmos, the mass injection of sea salt into layers of our atmosphere, and gigantic scrubbers physically cleaning toxins out of the air.
Though no one is giving an absolute go ahead on any of these ideas, many of them have been deemed ‘feasible’ and potentially effective. For them to actually be implemented, certain things would be required: international cooperation, mass amounts of building materials, and a labor deal the size of a giant space mirror. In other words, there are enough intangible man made obstacles to keep all these ideas off the table indefinitely.
