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by thuccess129 1656 days ago
> satellites to cool down the planet?

2% shade stationed at L1 is a 20 million tonne umbrella 1.5 million km above ground.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_sunshade

1 comments

But quite economical at starship prices per ton.

I feel like this option is not seriously considered enough.

I don't know enough orbital mechanics to understand the feasibility, but it's fun to consider that putting a shade over some of the hotter cities of the world - Phoenix for example, could have a big effect by reducing the need for air conditioning.
Painting all the roofs white would go quite a long way to reducing air conditioning load.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/04/16/...

https://e360.yale.edu/features/urban-heat-can-white-roofs-he...

Edit: the point is that we can do this now and we can do it incrementally.

A very cheap and easily implemented idea to help with climate change. That could be done in huge swaths of the world where a lot of people currently live. It probably needs some government help to stir people into action or make them aware of it. A tax break maybe for painting your roof white in a hot country/state?

In northern latitudes it would be nice to be able to change the albedo of the roof to reflect energy in the summer and absorb it in the winter (although the effect in winter will be muted in places where snow accumulates on the roof.) I wonder if there exists anything like that.

Thats interesting, thanks for pointing it out