Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

No, blowing H2S and SO2 into the stratosphere is cheaper.


That's the plot of Neal Stephenson's 2021 novel "Termination Shock": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termination_Shock_(novel)


The probability that this will end up happening leaves me feeling glad to be mortal.


I do not understand this logic. Only because something has a certain probability of happening makes you glad to be mortal? If you could choose now between being mortal and immortal, would you choose mortality because there is a certain probability that SO2 and H2S will be blown into the stratosphere?

BTW, I am not advocating this approach. I just wanted to answer the question in the headline which can only be a clear "No".


The increasing probability that humanity will become desperate enough to stave off climate change by pumping sulfur into the atmosphere follows from our ongoing failure to stop pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It's going to be a hell of a mess, and I do not envy the people who will have to deal with it.


Wait? Is someone really planning to do it? I just read 'Termination Shock' and it was big plot point. Didn't think anybody would really do it.


I don't know of any such plans, but it seems unlikely that global industrial civilization will reduce its CO2 emissions anytime soon, which means that very hard times are coming for billions of people's children. Someone will be desperate enough to try it.


As in glad you won't live long enough to see it?


I'm certainly glad that I won't ever have to say, "Yeah, global acid rain seems like a good answer to the problem of global warming." But only because I'll be dead, and it will be other people having to say it.


So many different cheap, easy options to at least partly remedy the problem and possibly reverse it, but the only possibility seriously discussed is a civilization-destroying and politically unrealistic austerity.


"For every complex problem, there's a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." H.L. Mencken


Even doing nothing would probably have a better outcome than what is being done right now.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: