WHY WAIT A YEAR FOR ANOTHER INSTALLMENT OF FREEMAN DYSON IN THE NYRB, WHEN EVERY WEEK BRINGS AN OP-ED OR TWO FROM S. FRED IN A JOURNAL THAT SCANS THE CULTURAL SPECTRUM FROM THE CATATONIC TO THE OXYMORONIC, THE INIMITABLE
May 13, 2015
Saving Humanity from Catastrophic Global Cooling: A Task for Geo-Engineering
There are two kinds of ice ages...“Little” ice ages were discovered in ice cores; they have been occurring on an approx. 1500-yr cycle and are likely controlled by the Sun. The current cycle’s cooling phase may be imminent and calls for urgent action...
While many consider the timing issue as settled...
Most expect the next glaciation to arrive rather soon; but calculations by Prof Andre Berger of the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, suggest a delay of some 40,000 years -- so there may be no great urgency. Nevertheless, it would be useful and of great scientific interest to verify the existence of a hypothesized “trigger” that might be disabled by human action -- at low cost and negligible risk....After digesting hundreds of comments about my essay on stopping the next major ice age, I recognized the need to explain the existence also of “little” ice ages, which are likely of solar origin. [see Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 years, by Singer and Avery, published by Rowman&Littlefield, 2007].
While many consider the timing issue as settled...
Most expect the next glaciation to arrive rather soon; but calculations by Prof Andre Berger of the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, suggest a delay of some 40,000 years -- so there may be no great urgency. Nevertheless, it would be useful and of great scientific interest to verify the existence of a hypothesized “trigger” that might be disabled by human action -- at low cost and negligible risk....After digesting hundreds of comments about my essay on stopping the next major ice age, I recognized the need to explain the existence also of “little” ice ages, which are likely of solar origin. [see Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 years, by Singer and Avery, published by Rowman&Littlefield, 2007].
We don’t know what triggers an LIA, but suspect a strong correlation with a quiet Sun and prolonged absence of sun spots. Experts in this field – Willie Soon (Harvard Observatory) [ Heartland Institute ], Harjit Ahluwalia (University of New Mexico)[ Huh? Ahluwalia is the author of 'No direct correlation between galactic cosmic rays and earth surface temperature '
Adv. Space Res., 52, 2119-2121, 2013. ]
Adv. Space Res., 52, 2119-2121, 2013. ]
author , Russian astronomer Habibullo Abdussamatov, and many others -- believe that the next LIA is imminent...During much of the American Revolution, New York Harbor was frozen over. And we recall paintings of George Washington crossing the Delaware River, impeded by ice floes.
How to overcome an LIA
....An obvious scheme to counter a cooling is to make use of greenhouse (GH) warming. However, carbon dioxide is not the answer: CO2 is limited in supply and is already saturated ... The answer may be water, but in the form of ice crystals; the scheme is easily tested and is transitory -- reversible and incurring little risk.
Here is how I picture the operation ... A KC-135 or similar aerial-refueling aircraft carries ~100 tons of water, which is to be injected as mist just above the tropopause...
Like contrails, I expect some visible cirrus, which should disappear rapidly, leaving behind invisible cirrus ice crystals that are strong absorbers/emitters of infrared (IR) radiation, covering also the atmospheric “window” region of 8 to 12 microns – thus creating a major GH effect and possibly even some detectable warming at the Earth’s surface... all this is based on theory and calculations, which I published in 1988...
While the science is certainly interesting and important, there is no need to delay the crucial and urgent tests of geo-engineering; they involve only minor costs and little risk to the atmospheric environment.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/05/saving_humanity_from_catastrophic_global_cooling_a_task_for_geoengineering.html#ixzz3aJbalAJf
