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by defrost 1068 days ago
> But the moment real fixes are discussed

Yeah, Nuh.

"detonating thermonuclear weapons to throw enough dust above the troposphere to cool the planet down" isn't a real solution, and we've done this before .. leaving aside the two atomic detonations at the end of WWII and looking just at the 2,000 test detonations since (many larger, much larger, than the H & N explosions) the absolute worst case examples were ground level blasts that lifted material into the sky. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo

Better fixes include inflating bubbles between the earth and sun to reduce incoming light .. at least that one is reversable and fine tuneable.

Or, you know, maybe consuming less and winding down a bit on the baby making?

2 comments

Woa! Be careful! Baby making seems like a holy activity for some people on HN and elsewhere. Any time you suggest not having as many children or not making as babies all around the world, some very intelligent person will put words in your mouth and reinterpret your words in bad ways, to be able to call you a murderer or similar. Part of the problem.

And of course when it comes to making babies almost everyone thinks, that their child or they themselves are special and it is OK to have more than one child for them. Especially comfortable when they already have two or more children, or for some ego reason want more children than proposed. Oh and never dare to mention China and one child policy either in this context, or the consequences for the world, if that policy had not existed.

Demographic implosion is a real thing. Japan's population is already dropping, and it's only just starting to pick up steam, with most western nations only a decade or two behind.

China can't even turn off their "one child policy". It was a switch they could flip, and now can't unflip. How's that going to work out for them?

My children are enthusiastic about becoming parents themselves one day, and I wouldn't be shocked if we get 6 or more grandchildren. Turns out, all you have to do is always behave as if having children is a good thing... which was easy for me, since it is. It seems likely that the future will look alot more like me than it will look like you.

> "detonating thermonuclear weapons to throw enough

Don't need thermonukes. Seed the oceans with iron.