Science to save the world from environmental disaster

[Greadius]

Originally posted by sysyphus
It's politics that are in the way.

I thought it was economics, seeing as it is completely irrational to pay 10 times as much for a vehicle that isn't a quarter as efficient or effective as the cheaper equivalent.
Any politics to solve that?

 

[amadeus]

Originally posted by sniping_people
Could that be because the US Govt sent no representatives to the conference?

I guess Colin Powell isn't a represenative of our government, seeing as he is the Secretary of State, the diplomatic wing of the American executive branch.

 

[Pongui]

Damien's recipe for cloud includes everything but one ingredient: dust. Without dust (or smoke, soot, even industrial air pollution) the humidity has nothing to stick to. Artificial cloud-seeding works by providing dust for moisture to condense on, and form heavy droplets. Presently, we rely on the windswept deserts for that crucial airbourne dust. If we continue to stabilize these deserts for our agriculture, we must artificially provide dust or... NO RAIN.

It's a self-balancing system. Warming dries marginal land, which gives rise to dust in the upper atmosphere. Warming also increases evaporation. Water vapour + dust = cloud. Cloud blocks sunlight, curbing warming.

We just need to conserve enough desert surface, and a safety margin of semi-desert. Perhaps in the future, we will find ways to promote dust storms.