[modriano]

The only way to reduce the temperature of Earth is to have thermal energy leave the Earth + atmosphere system (Q_out) at a faster rate than it enters the Earth + atmosphere system (Q_in). The first law of thermodynamics renders any scheme to reduce Earth's temperature without ejecting heat from the system as futile.

The only viable way to reduce the imbalance between Q_out and Q_in is to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (so photons are reflected back to Earth at a lower rate). This has to be done at national and international scales, and it will require massive, painful changes to powerful interests that invested in fossil fuels plants, meat production facilities, construction projects, etc, which will cause massive economic displacement.

The only CO2 consuming chemical reaction that could be scaled up to the level needed to decrease the atmospheric CO2 concentration is photosynthesis, which sequesters CO2 in the form of wood. We could plant billions of trees, but that requires massive tracts of land where the trees can grow for decades. Unfortunately, the rate of planting trees would have to exceed the rate that trees are being cut down, and under Brazil's new dictator, Captain Planet villains in Brazil alone are cutting down 1 football field of Amazon rainforest every minute.

Unfortunately, we're too late to stop climate change from disastrously harming our futures and life expectancies.

[defterGoose]

In other words (and I say this with great sadness and not a hint of flippancy), we're super boned.

[modriano]

Yeah. We (in the US) can't even start making the changes needed to save the planet until Trump is gone. Unfortunately, climate change is politically beneficial for Trump and the GOP as climate change is displacing millions of people in Central America, which can be used to frighten, polarize, and energize rural voters.

And even if we win the Presidency, the steps needed to fight climate change will be very painful for all of the people whose dirty jobs are eliminated. It will take a policy proposal like the Green New Deal, which accounts for that pain with corresponding social safety net programs and occupational retraining programs. But cleaning up this mess would require long term Democratic control, and that's unlikely given the expected pain.