Do you remember the movie?
The government is having a "brainstorming" session. That's what the five year (OMG they still think they have 5 years to brainstorm ideas) funding for studies is about.
They think a "CLIMATE ASTERIOD" is about to hit the world in say 20 years. Based on the length of time given for the brainstorming session.
This idea is about as delusional as the one in the movie with the solar sail.
However, there is a faction in the 1% who want this very much.
Think of them as the "High Frontier" faction. They see the future as being in space. They desperately want a crisis that kick starts the space industry into high gear.
I read all the same sci-fi these guys did and I know all the arguments. It boils down to the idea that the resources of the solar system are infinite. All we need to do is encourage people to get out there and exploit them.
A Second Age of Exploration if you will.
Just like the Age of Exploration resulted in the riches of the world flowing to Europe. This new Age would result in the riches of solar system flowing to Earth.
If you have infinite resources and energy the idea of "overgrowth" is meaningless. Blah, blah, blah peace and plenty blah, blah. You know the way it goes.
They are going to push hard for a solution like this because they think this will be the last chance to make the jump into space. Once the Climate Crisis kicks in there will be no money for space programs.
This is "do or die" time for the High Frontier faction.
There are a lot of people in the science community who passionately think this is the way to go. They have LOTS of charts and graphs to support their argument.
It's also a positive argument. It says that we can gradually transition off fossil fuels and not have to do it at breakneck speed.
It solves the resource problem by increasing the size of the pie. That's a positive vision of the future.
Until about five years ago I was kinda in this camp ideologically. Like I said, it provides a positive solution to the current ecological crisis. Who doesn't want to believe in a positive solution?
My views on this have shifted because I think we have already missed the boat on this. The CRISIS is here far earlier than anyone expected because we knew so little just 60 years ago.
We were literally playing with the control knobs on the planetary climate system without knowing what we were doing. We convinced ourselves it was safe because that was convenient for what we wanted to do.
Well, we were wrong. By a LOT.
There's no more time for space programs to save us. We don't have twenty years.
They will try turning the sky white because that's the only RAPID CLIMATE INTERVENTION we can realistically manage in a ten year time frame. See Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Colbert (The 6th Extinction) for what that's going to be like.
