what is being done on a grand scale to curb global warming?

Answer 1

Ignoring individual efforts to curb global warming there are several schemes that are being considered at the moment. Below is an extract from something I wrote a while ago...

Ambitious schemes have been proposed that would manipulate our climate through geoengineering. These contentious schemes include constructing a giant sunscreen to block out some of the sun’s heat and artificial trees to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. If these schemes are successful they could prevent global warming from getting worse and may be reverse the warming trend.

HUMAN VOLCANO
Volcanic eruptions emit large quantities of sulphur dioxide which blocks out some of the heat from the sun. One proposal is to simulate natural volcanoes by firing pellets of sulphur into the upper atmosphere where the particles of sulphur will reflect back some of the solar radiation.

SULPHUR BLANKET
Professor Crutzen's idea is to launch rockets into the stratosphere (10 to 50km above Earth's surface) and release one million tons of sulphur. This radical plan could have drawbacks including an increase in acid rain and damage to the ozone layer.

SOLAR MIRRORS
The US National Academy of Sciences has proposed a scheme that would involve positioning 55,000 gigantic mirrors in space. Each mirror would be 100 square kilometres in area and the effect would be to reflect some of the sun's heat energy back into space.

GLOBAL SUNSHADE
British astronomer Roger Angel has proposed creating a giant sunshade consisting of 16 trillion glass discs, each one microscopically thin and weighing just one gram. On board each disc would be a tiny camera, computer and solar sails allowing each disc to align itself so as to refract light from the sun just enough so it misses Earth.

MOVING EARTH
Perhaps the most ambitious of all schemes so far proposed is one to actually move planet Earth into a different orbit. It has been estimated that if Earth were 1.5 million miles further from the sun then the reduced heat energy received from the sun would compensate for anthropogenic global warming. It has calculated that the energy required to move the Earth this far would be the equivalent of 5 quadrillion hydrogen bombs (5,000,000,000,000,000).

CLOUD SEEDING
Cloud seeding isn't a new concept and one variation on this theme is to launch a fleet of self propelled vessels to sail the world's oceans and spray a fine mist of sea water particles into the atmosphere, this would produce specific clouds which would reflect some of the solar radiation back into space.

ARTIFICIAL TREES
In the artificial trees air passes through the device and hydrogen sulphide absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, each 'tree' could remove 90,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year. The carbon dioxide would need to be permanently stored and one option could be drilling holes thousands of metres deep into porous rock beneath the oceans into which the CO2 would be injected.

PHYTOPLANKTON
Phytoplankton are microscopic marine plants, like all plants they photosynthesise - taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. Increasing the quantity of phytoplankton will result in more carbon dioxide being absorbed and when the plants die they sink to the ocean floor taking the carbon with them.

Answer 2

I have been trying to follow this whole thing for the past two years. Global Warming is a FACT!! However, the point that isn't made hardly at all is: this is a natural phenomenon. The earth heats up, it cools, it heats up, it cools. Almost all the CO2 in the atmosphere (95%) comes from two sources. Volcano activity and the oceans themselves.

One other point. We keep hearing about the glaciers in Greenland. Why was it called Greenland. Why wasn't it called whiteland. Because Greenlands glaciers had almost disappeared when the Vikings landed there. It was still cold and nasty but warmer than it is today.

Answer 3

It has long been stated that what caused the ice age was volcanic smoke in the air which filtered out the sun light and made things cooler. So alongs comes The E P A and puts in a no burn ban and takes out what smoke that there was in the air letting in more sun light which is making things hotter and letting in more cancer rays, and to compound the problem the things which should have been burned is now rotting and giving off methane gas which causes more global warming. So all we need to do is go back to burning our leaves and trash to stop global warming. Note signs of global warming started with the burn ban.

Answer 4

On a scale of a million to 10, how substantial a international difficulty do you think international warming is? 6 to 7 What themes of international magnitude could you rank bigger than international warming? decrease? the present international financial disaster is extra pressing, as is the occasion of lack of understanding international extensive, from fundamentalist non secular communities to politically introduced on Luddites like the AGW deniers. Which effect of international warming concerns you the main and why? Ocean acidification. The carbonate buffering in the sea seems to be quite finely tuned and that i do no longer think of every person particularly is conscious what ought to take place with a pH shrink, in spite of the undeniable fact that it must be devastating to shell development organisms. What do you think of could be finished approximately international warming sooner or later? i think of a circulate faraway from fossil fuels is inevitable. as quickly as that happens we ought to instruct our interest to waste warmth, yet which will in straight forward terms be a situation if our inhabitants and potential use retains increasing. Why do you think of usa hasn't ratified the Kyoto Protocol? because of the fact people have been worried that it could reason too lots financial soreness and there are distinctive those that are scientifically illiterate that don't totally understand the subject.

Answer 5

Nothing by the USA - they won't obey Kyoto because they're selfish. At least Europe is trying. But China will be the biggest polluter by 2008 anyway.

It's all immaterial though - the world's climate is never constant and will change regardless.

Answer 6

I don't think there will be anything that can be done enough to curb global warming. Our planet is screwed.

Answer 7

If there was such a thing I'd give you an answer but since it is proven that it does not exist, I can't help you.

Answer 8

the Kyoto agreement

Answer 9

nothing