Geoengineering: A Horrible Idea We Might Have to Do — Transcript

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1. 0:00by the end of the 21st century humanity
2. 0:03is becoming desperate Decades of heat
3. 0:05waves and droughts have led to unusually
4. 0:08poor harvests while the warming oceans
5. 0:10yield fewer fish each year in the
6. 0:13tropical zones Millions suffer from
7. 0:15famines and resource Wars have made
8. 0:17Millions more flee to the north as
9. 0:19things quickly get worse in an act of
10. 0:21desperation the world's governments
11. 0:23decide to enact an emergency plan it's
12. 0:27far from certain that a grim scenario
13. 0:28like this will play out but the failure
14. 0:30of world leaders to effectively address
15. 0:32climate change makes it far from
16. 0:34impossible so in the near future it
17. 0:37might become necessary to try something
18. 0:39radical to slow down rapid climate
19. 0:41change
20. 0:43geoengineering interventions so massive
21. 0:45in scale that they might undo centuries
22. 0:48of human behavior or make everything
23. 0:51much worse what is geoengineering is it
24. 0:54really an option and what if it goes
25. 0:56wrong
26. 0:59[Music]
27. 1:05geoengineering methods vary from
28. 1:07Fantastic ones like constructing giant
29. 1:10light sails in space to seeding clouds
30. 1:12with salt or Wilder ones like
31. 1:14fertilizing the oceans with iron to
32. 1:16speed up the growth of trillions of
33. 1:18algae cells in this video we'll focus on
34. 1:21an intervention we could see during our
35. 1:23lifetimes stratospheric aerosol
36. 1:26injection a clunky term that means
37. 1:28spraying stuff very high up in the
38. 1:30atmosphere to keep the Sun away keeping
39. 1:33the Sun away CO2 doesn't heat up the
40. 1:37planet on its own almost all of the
41. 1:38energy on Earth comes from the sun in
42. 1:40the form of electromagnetic radiation
43. 1:43about 71% of this energy is absorbed by
44. 1:46the Earth's surface and atmosphere this
45. 1:49absorbed energy is emitted again as
46. 1:51infrared radiation and CO2 is able to
47. 1:54trap this infrared radiation and keep it
48. 1:57in the atmosphere for a while you can
49. 1:59compare this effect with snuggling under
50. 2:01a blanket in the morning even in a
51. 2:03really cold room your body emits
52. 2:05infrared radiation and the air between
53. 2:07your body and the blanket traps it and
54. 2:09creates a warm and comfy feeling so one
55. 2:12way to cool down the planet would be to
56. 2:14prevent energy from getting trapped
57. 2:16under our planet blanket which is
58. 2:19already happening naturally about 29% of
59. 2:22the solar radiation hitting Earth is
60. 2:24reflected back to space by bright
61. 2:26surfaces like ice deserts snow or clouds
62. 2:30more reflection less energy less warming
63. 2:34we can look at nature for inspiration
64. 2:36specifically the 1991 Mount Pinatubo
65. 2:39eruption the second largest volcanic
66. 2:41eruption of the 20th century aside from
67. 2:44massive Devastation and almost 900 dead
68. 2:47scientists noted its strong impact on
69. 2:49the global climate the explosion ejected
70. 2:52millions of tons of particles and gas as
71. 2:55high as the stratosphere which hung
72. 2:57around there for a while the stuff
73. 2:59that's interesting testing for
74. 3:00geoengineering is sulfur dioxide a nasty
75. 3:03smelling and invisible gas high in the
76. 3:06atmosphere It produced a haze of
77. 3:08sulfuric acid droplets that mixed with
78. 3:10water and created giant veils these
79. 3:13veils reduced the sunlight reaching
80. 3:15Earth surface by roughly 1% global
81. 3:19average temperatures dropped by 0.5° C
82. 3:23it took 3 years until this cooling
83. 3:25effect had stopped humans could imitate
84. 3:28this process by injecting sulfur
85. 3:30particles directly into the stratosphere
86. 3:33According to some scientists this might
87. 3:34be surprisingly easy to do and we don't
88. 3:37even need a lot of new technology for it
89. 3:39according to one study it also might be
90. 3:42pretty cheap compared with the costs of
91. 3:44Rapid climate change a small Fleet of
92. 3:47specialized aircraft could Ascend once a
93. 3:49year and distribute Aerosoles along the
94. 3:51Equator from where they would be spread
95. 3:53around the world projections assume that
96. 3:56injecting between 5 and 8 megatons of
97. 3:58material per year would reflect enough
98. 4:00sunlight to slow down or even stop
99. 4:03global warming giving us precious time
100. 4:06to transition away from fossil fuels
101. 4:09unfortunately there might be a few
102. 4:11unhappy side effects there are a number
103. 4:14of potential issues with aerosol
104. 4:15injections rainfall patterns could
105. 4:18change which could negatively affect
106. 4:19agriculture and cause famine billions of
107. 4:22people could be affected in the worst
108. 4:24case also after the 1991 Mount Pinatubo
109. 4:28eruption the acid water water veils not
110. 4:30only cooled down the surface they also
111. 4:32heated up the stratosphere as it turns
112. 4:35out acid is bad for the ozone layer and
113. 4:38the ozone hole over Antarctica was the
114. 4:40largest it has ever been injecting
115. 4:43sulfur particles over decades could have
116. 4:45a similar effect scientists have already
117. 4:48suggested using a combination of
118. 4:50different minerals that might have much
119. 4:51less harmful effects on the ozone layer
120. 4:53but more research and experiments need
121. 4:55to be done to make sure this could work
122. 4:58but even if we don't damage the ozone
123. 5:00layer there are other risks politicians
124. 5:03and Industry might use the cooling
125. 5:05effect as an excuse to delay the switch
126. 5:07to a carbon neutral economy even if
127. 5:10geoengineering slows down global warming
128. 5:12humanity is still adding extra CO2 to
129. 5:15the atmosphere more CO2 in the air means
130. 5:18that the oceans absorb more CO2 which
131. 5:20makes them more acidic this is already
132. 5:23beginning to be deadly to huge
133. 5:24ecosystems like coral reefs and the
134. 5:27longer this continues the more severe
135. 5:29the effects will be but it gets worse
136. 5:32once we start pumping particles into the
137. 5:34atmosphere on a massive scale we might
138. 5:36be forced to do so for a long time or we
139. 5:38could risk a termination shock what that
140. 5:41means is that if Humanity continues to
141. 5:43enrich the atmosphere with CO2 but at
142. 5:45the same time prevents the planet from
143. 5:47heating up by blocking solar radiation
144. 5:49we're sitting on a time bomb once we
145. 5:52stop geoengineering the natural cycle
146. 5:54will take over again and Earth would
147. 5:56heat up but after a few Decades of
148. 5:58keeping the planet artificial cold while
149. 6:00still releasing massive amounts of CO2
150. 6:02it would heat up much much quicker an
151. 6:05increase in temperature that would take
152. 6:0750 years today could happen in just 10
153. 6:09years such a temperature shock in such a
154. 6:12short time would disrupt every major
155. 6:14system on Earth so much that it would be
156. 6:16impossible to adapt in time the worst
157. 6:19case scenario could be dramatic famines
158. 6:21and the rapid destruction of ecosystems
159. 6:24Humanity might survive but the survivors
160. 6:26would inhabit an unfamiliar and hostile
161. 6:29world world the best case scenario is
162. 6:32that once the world has finally fully
163. 6:34understood the existential danger of
164. 6:36Rapid climate change geoengineering can
165. 6:38bu us a crucial decade or two time to
166. 6:41transition our economies and maybe even
167. 6:43pull CO2 out of the atmosphere maybe
168. 6:46with technologies that we'll discuss in
169. 6:48a future
170. 6:49video
171. 6:50conclusion geoengineering is a scary
172. 6:53concept it's not a solution to climate
173. 6:56change and it might even be a welcome
174. 6:58excuse for the fossil fuel industry to
175. 7:00delay the end of the fossil fuel age
176. 7:02over the last few decades geoengineering
177. 7:05has been so controversial that it's
178. 7:06stopped many scientists from doing the
179. 7:08experiments necessary to understand it
180. 7:10better but blankly opposing
181. 7:13geoengineering is shortsighted the sad
182. 7:16truth is we are already running a
183. 7:18geoengineering experiment we're testing
184. 7:20how fast the world changes if we add
185. 7:22about 40 billion tons of CO2 each year
186. 7:26this experiment is about to get really
187. 7:28exciting hopefully we'll never have to
188. 7:31use geoengineering but if we need to in
189. 7:34the future we better have done the
190. 7:36science we better be prepared or a
191. 7:40panicking Humanity might accidentally
192. 7:43press the self-destruct
193. 7:45[Music]
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