Climate Change Mitigation: Near Term Solutions

Climate Change can occur from many sources, natural or manmade. In order to handle these problems we may wish to utilize many of the technologies we've developed for future space exploration, colonization, and terraforming.

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Credits:
Climate Change Mitigation: Near Term Solutions
Episode 226 Feb 20, 2020

Writers:
Isaac Arthur

Editors:
Darius Said
Evan Schultheis
Phonetic Failure
Berindeanu Cosmin (Sapioit)

Produced & Narrated by:
Isaac Arthur

Cover Art:

Graphics:
Jarred Eagley
Udo Schroeter

[stainlesssteelfox]

'Near term solutions' in Arthur-speak means, 'not reducing Earth's temperature by the obvious expedient of moving Earth into a wider orbit' and 'not siphoning helium out of the sun to cool it down.'

[BlackGryphn]

I absolutely love how thorough you are. I wish more people could talk about climate change this way instead of going at each other's throats with either fear-triggering doomsday predictions or complete and utter denial. It seems like every time something becomes a political tool, science goes out the window.

[My_initials_are_O.G.cuz_I_am]

From 14:07 to 14:13
"I'm a big believer in killing two birds with one stone, or preferably a whole flock with a shotgun."
That is the best iteration of this idiom, I've ever heard.

[crashstarr]

SFIA: The only place you'll hear a rational argument for nuking the moon.

[nickbreen]

Well, technically, if a Hydrogen device is not being utilized as a 'Bomb' is it simply a rapid thermogenic heater and air compressor....

[alexistaylor]

“I’m a big fan of hitting two birds with one stone, or preferably a whole flock with a shotgun.”

-Isaac Arthur, 2020

[zoopdterdoobdter]

Eventually, _all Isaac videos are going to become mere collections of links to other Isaac videos...._ because he's already imagined/posted solutions to all of the challenges our species enjoys. 🤗

[cannonfodder]

Your optimism is so great in a time of increasing cynicism. Where others are bigger pointing and yelling, you are looking at what exists and what could be done in the near future.

Technology within our grasp that would change the world for the better in more exciting ways than most Sci-Fi.

Oh what can be achieved, great episode Isaac and team. I have been looking forward to this episode.

[PGGraham]

"where we will cheerfully discuss using hydrogen bombs to save the environment" - I love this channel!

[rojaws]

How I stopped worrying for climate change and learned how to love H-bombing all climate problems away.

[miketyance]

Yes! I'm here early ready with my drink and my snack

[theCodyReeder]

Because using a shotgun on a flock is unsportsmanlike and an illegal hunting practice.

[theghostofpatrickhenry]

I'm leaving my fridge open and turning down the AC to help fix the issue. Hope it helps cause the electric bill is crazy.

[IRMentat]

Me: I can’t wait for this episode, Isaac will bring some common sense to possible methods of creating change.
SFIA: so, let’s talk about all the ways we can use fusion bombs for our benefit.
Then Segway into interesting yet profitable ways to blot our the sun.

Me: finally, a common sense approach :D

[JamesR]

I unironically love how Issac sees a rail gun space launch as a near term solution.

[petersmythe]

We should keep in mind that when we talk about covering 1% of Earth's surface area in anything, that is like discussing covering India and Pakistan in that thing. Or the continental US west of the Mississippi. Or Brazil. Or the EU. Or Australia.

Yes, we already do that, but that doesn't make it easy. We are talking about nearly continent-sized areas.

[thedoruk]

That Thumbnail!

Reverse Anti Gravity pyramids are not real; they cannot hurt you

The Reverse Anti Gravity Pyramids ...

[Dragrath]

Some comments
-You mention Sea walls and other hard barriers as methods of adaptation but they have been shown to make waves/storms effects more severe relative to soft barriers which absorb energy rather than deflect it. Plus reefs, wetlands and mangroves provide significant boons in terms of not only providing a resilient barrier to absorb storm energy but also providing ecological benefits such as reducing runoff, actively combating erosion through growth, carbon sequestration, and support for fisheries.
I also have to wonder it what ways we might be able to improve on nature with genetic engineering or hybrid infrastructure approaches that combine our hard barriers with softer stabilizing living barriers.


-Given we already unwittingly tried the sulfide solution there were indeed significant side effects Sulfides after all played a mitigating role in our greenhouse gas emission at the cost of acid rain, respiratory health challenges(smog, lung disease(Did I mention cancer), and over all poor health). It wasn't until we cleaned up these other pollutants to reduce the losses of human lives that we have begun to experience the full effects of our carbon emissions. Yeah I don't see aerosol based methods as being a good solution at all.


-The asteroid "solution definitely sounds like it would cause problems given that nature already tried that experiment once with the Ordovician mass extinction it wasn't the sole factor or perhaps even the dominant one but it is something to consider. Plus more relevantly good luck convincing people to let you chuck asteroids at the planet yet alone fund such an operation....


-The idiom of shooting birds was horrifying don't hurt my feathered fluffy friends.... :o The only exception is if it is invasive species such as house sparrows or starlings you can take out as many of them as you want. It should be remembered that shotgunning birds was how we killed off the passenger pigeon once one of the most abundant birds on the planet now completely extinct. Plus many birds especially corvids and parrots have been shown to be comparable to the great apes in terms of intelligence with the new caledonian crow taking second place in terms of animal intelligence after humans through their cultural tool construction traditions. Plus the tit family of songbirds has been shown to have the most linguistically complex vocalizations known after humans as the only animals known to have true compositional syntax and grammar rules. Birds are amazing animals that deserve far more respect for their intellectual abilities. At least some of them as there can be significant variation in intelligence among birds as there is in mammals.


-Fission really had gotten a bad reputation despite having so much potential for powering carbon capture for fuel storage or outright sequestration. Shame that they had cut the carbon capture to fuel methods there is real potential there. Energy density only nuclear exceeds dense chemical fuels and it is fundamentally impossible to match fossil fuel level energy densities without huge surface areas or large time intervals at least according to the laws of thermodynamics.


- I don't think you can say that plants are less efficient at using sunlight for carbon sequestration in a full ecological context given the real advantage is the ability for ecosystems to sequester carbon into the subsurface biosphere via the rhizosphere without large initial carbon costs. Of course nature can indeed be improved on but the problems with solar based technologies on the production side and cost towards biodiversity would outweigh any benefits I could see such schemes giving for a very long time without drastic improvements and or revolutions in solar production technology.


-I hope you can convince Musk to see reality on the potential of power satellites not to mention that the infrastructure needed for such satellites would enable far more technologies to eventually colonize the solar system and advance to a K1+ civilization. The sooner we can get real space based manufacturing the sooner we can vastly expand our options on dealing with the climate issues. Lets just hope such changes can be done intelligently.


Regarding waste I hope it follows on the principal that there is no such thing as waste, only misappropriated resources.

[ragingagent]

You had me at “using Hydrogen bombs to save the environment”

[uTubeMeltsYourBrain]

Isaac Arthur should go on Joe Rogan. Subscribers would double. Also, it would be interesting. He’s not phobic in any way as far as I’ve heard. Brian Greene goes on there. Bernie Sanders. Let’s get IA on there