Idea to offset melting icebergs...what do you think?

Question

One of the things icebergs do is help reflect UV radiation back into space, without them the oceans absorb the heat and thus melt more icebergs which further accelerates the melting.
I don't pretend to know how big all the icebergs are in square miles, but what if we positioned giant mirrors on floating barges? Does this make sense and would it even be doable?
Please don't answer if you disagree with global warming, you dinosaurs are vastly outnumbered, the science is sound, global warming is real, get used to it.
I'm not interested in debating that FACT, just want to know if what I'm proposing would work. Thanks!

It's amazing..it doesnt matter what I put in these questions about not wanting to debate this, this isnt a blog! I ask a question, YOU answer my question, simple right?...guess not, there's always those morons that feel they are ordained to HAVE to challenge the very question, when that was never the question!
Are these the same people who STILL support the war, even though WMDs were never found, Saddam never supported Al Queda, & Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11? Believe what you want, you have that right, but please move to Florida, so when the super hurricanes and the rising seas wash you away, you can float off on your ignorance...

Answer 1

Excellent question. Having studied various proposals for combatting the anthropogenic component of global warming this is a new idea to me.

There are suggestions along these lines, one of which involves positioning solar mirrors in space to relfect sunlight which isn't that different to your idea.

A similar idea involves artificially enlarging the polar ice caps by pumping huge quantities of water into areas which have sub-zero temperatures but not a lot if ice cover.

A third idea along similar lines uses shipping, not so much for the ships to reflect the sunlight but to spray a fine mist of sea water into the atmosphere and create reflective marine stratocumulus clouds above the oceans.

There are many other 'geoengineering' schemes but these are three of the ones that are similar to your idea.

As to the question of whether it would work - any amount of sunlight reflected back into space is going to reduce the effects of global warming so in that respect it will work.

The impracticality lies in the scale of the operation. The solar mirrors idea would involve 55,000 mirrors each with a surface area of 100 square kilometres, total area of 5.5 million square km, the equivalent of 1% of the Earth's surface.

I'm answering this whilst on the phone and don't have time to do the math but I would guess you'd need to maybe 1 million sq km of mirrors, if each barge had a 100 x 100m mirror on it you'd need 100 million barges.

It would seem to be more practical to have the mirrors on land, they could be substantially bigger and thier position could be constantly changed so as to relfect the maximum amount of sunlight. There are drawbacks to having them on land, not least being that the solar radiation will have penetrated our atmosphere before reaching them, better in this respect to have them in space.

Answer 2

I like your creativity, but I think the idea would be impractical. It would take tremendous effort and resources to make all this happen. If we were to put that much work into a project, I would rather see it go to photovoltaic panels. Placing the panels on our roofs would help generate electricity, reducing the need for power from coal-fired power plants, plus they would shade our homes from the sun, reducing the need for air conditioning.

All that aside, though, if we want to reduce the absorption of incoming solar radiation, we could paint our rooftops white. White paint reflects light back into space. That would be easier and less costly than a flotilla of mirrors, and it would have a much lower environmental impact. It would also keep our buildings cooler in the summer time, again reducing the need for air conditioning.

This is a little off topic, but I think it's important. You've come up with a creative, albeit impractical partial solution to global warming. It's important to explore new ideas to solve our problems and that's what you've done by floating this question. I try to do the same thing so I'll tell you about a recent and ongoing project of mine: There are a lot of simple things we can do in our lives that will help us to live more sustainably. For example, I think we could save a lot of resources if, as a nation, we would just use our pants to dry our hands instead of using paper towels or electric hand dryers in public restrooms. To get the idea out, I recently printed stickers and launched a web site called useyourpants.org. The project is my creative way to offer a partial solution to our sustainability issues.

Keep being creative and keep floating ideas and you'll come up with something that will be practical and will help.

Answer 3

It sounds like it would work only if it didn't take away the sunlight from other places where it's needed. The caps are melting, there's no doubt about that & unfortunately nature cannot work this one out by herself. Our fast livestyles demand way too much & too fast. Nature cannot deal with any changes that takes place too quickly. We can all see the changes that are happening because of climate change. I'm only talking about people who do NOT have their heads burried in the sand.

Anyway, the polar caps are pretty massive. For e.g Antarctica is estimated to be 14million km². So the mirror would have to be that size to have any effect, unless the characteristics of the ice itself play some special part in reflecting but I don't think so. I suppose a huge mirror or many mirrors put together to that size would work but unfortunately it would be quite impossible to make & would only work as a short time stop-gap.
Check out the link for interesting simple info on Antarctica

Answer 4

“Please don't answer if you disagree with global warming, you dinosaurs are vastly outnumbered, the science is sound, global warming is real, get used to it. I'm not interested in debating that FACT”

LOL Did you *really* believe you could get away with putting something like that in your question and expect the sceptics to simply think “oh, ok then”

And then you go on to call sceptics “those morons” who “STILL support the war”

Oh, so global warming sceptics are now likened to Holocaust deniers, Islamic terrorists, tobacco companies (see http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Auwlm4Q9UmpnGVcYU7ALl9MgBgx.?qid=20070624144219AAjHHQV&show=7#profile-info-20f3291b9320a302e9070bf55325531daa ), *and* now supporters of the Iraq war.

Oh please!

And then you go and end with “super hurricanes and the rising seas wash you away” Except of course there is very little evidence to support the theory that global warming is increasing hurricane activity – except via the IPCC, of course, which came to that conclusion without any research to support it (see http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=ae9b984d-4a1c-45c0-af24-031a1380121a&k=0 ) and sea levels rose by only about 1 inch every 15 years in the last century (so that’s 6 inches in 100 years) and that rate shows little, if any, sign of accelerating.

But, of course, you know the “FACTS” about global warming, don’t you?

Not!

Answer 5

Putting aside the fact this would never work since ice has little to do with how much UV rays makes it to the surface of the Earth, do realize how much ice we lose every year from our polar ice caps and the melting of ice bergs? Do you realize how many ships it would take to even try to do their job by reflecting light back into the atmosphere?

The amount resources needed to build enough ships (trees for example) to even attempt to do their job, would mean stripping the Earth of so much of it's resources, we would cause far worse problems. You could strip the US of all of it's trees and you still wouldn't have enough lumber to begin building that many ships.

If you put mirrors on every ship currently on earth, you wouldn't even reflect a tiny fraction of the same amount light the ice we lose every year reflects back.

Even if you could build all those ships with mirrors, what would it do to lower UV rays? Nothing.

Answer 6

Nope... it won't work. To reflect the amount of light that the iceberg does, you'd have to have a mirror of equal size, and WHERE would you put THAT?! You can't put it on the iceberg. There are creatures that depend on that surface in one way or another. You can't float it on barges. Things that live in that area of water would suffer the consequences of a sudden drastic change of environment. It's great to know you're trying but... you'll have to try harder.

Answer 7

I think Global warming is caused by millions of tree-huggers around the world flapping their jaws 24 hours a day. As far as your mirrors, are you aware that to make a giant mirror is a complicated process. Tones of silicates must be mined and shipped to a factory. Fossil fuel heats the silicates until it becomes liquid. Next, this liquid is floated on liquid tin in order to produce a flat panel. Finally, the back is coated with silver to become a mirror. That's a lot of mining and fuel consumption for a mirror. Great for the environment.

Answer 8

Yes it probably would work, in theory. However, I don't think there are enough barges in the world to do what you are talking about. The ice caps cover a HUGE area, and barges aren't really all that big.

Answer 9

The question is what is causing global warming..

Man's CO2 contribution is MINOR compared to natural sources... The globe warming causes natural CO2 release to accelerate.

So which is causing which?

We do know that we had GLOBAL COOLING in the 1970's... and a thinner ozone layer. Now we have warming and the ozone layer is getting thicker... Maybe we should release tons of CFC's to thin the ozone layer.

Nature is likely to take care of itself.

As the oceans heat, more water evaporates. This causes greater cloud coverage and clouds reflect light from the sun.

Natural and should work better than your barges.

Answer 10

I have heard putting more clouds in the air will help reflect some of the light and keep our poles stable.