Climate

So, the global temperature is rising, which will cause various problems. The cause has been demonstrated to be the amount of trace gases in the atmosphere which are collectively known as greenhouse gases. These retain more heat than the basic nitrogen and oxygen that make up almost all of the air. The Royal Society has produced a report about the feasibility of a range of engineering projects to rectify this. Some of the projects suggest ways of cutting the amount of sunlight falling on the earth to cool the atmosphere. These include increasing the reflectiveness of clouds so more sunlight is reflected back into space and millions of reflectors in orbit again to reflect sunlight back into space.

Lets just review that: the problem is global temperature rise and it lies with too much of certain types of gas in the atmosphere. Proposed answers are to reduce the level of sunlight reaching the surface of the planet.

This is ridiculous. The rule of unintended consequences will defiantly apply. If there is less sunlight reaching the surface, plants will not grow as well. Plants are the main way to remove carbon dioxide so slowing their growth is a really bad idea.

There are various other problems with climate change: more energy in the atmosphere leading to more storms; sea level rise due to ice melting and the oceans expanding and increasing acidity of the oceans causing shells of sea creatures to dissolve. Reducing the solar radiation reaching the surface will have only limited effects on these problems too.

I don't want some bunch of geeks to reduce the sunlight that reaches my allotment plot because of some misguided dabbling. My plants need the sun. If people want to deal with climate change more power to their elbows, but remove the greenhouse gases, don't tamper around the edges.