revtec wrote:
We are incredibly vunerable to any variation in output that our sun may
shine on us. Compared to a 1% or 2% shift in solar radiation, anything
civilization can do is inconsequential.
Suppose we manage to act effectively to reduce global warming, and then the
sun goes into a low output mode. This could cause a terrible ice age that
we would have otherwise survived if we hadn't reduced the earth's
temperature.
Easy-peasy! No problem. My large-scale solution was to build space
elevators and deploy gigantic Mylar shields. Call it a global parasol.
Okay, so it turns out we go too far and cool things off too much, or the
sun itself turns down the rheostat. Okay, first we remove the parasol, and
if that does not do the trick, we redeploy the Mylar in gigantic orbiting
mirrors to focus more sunlight on the earth on the daylight side. (You
would not want to disrupt the night, although I guess it would be easier to
point the mirrors that way.)
To make up for a 2% decline in solar radiation, you need enough Mylar to
reflect approximately 2% of the daylight earth's surface area, or 3.6
million square kilometers. That sounds doable to me.
- Jed
