Lights out

According to a couple news items I’ve read some alleged scientists want to put a giant umbrella in space to block out a couple percent of the energy reaching Earth. Apparently, some uber-rich individuals are all in on the idea as well, although they’d prefer to have taxpayers foot the bill for it. The arguments in support of this idea are of course all based on the still quite dubious claims that we are heating up the globe because blah blah blah. For argument’s sake, let’s say they do it, and oops, they block a little too much, and the ice ages return forever, and it’s irreversible because almost all of us die so nobody can get rid of the umbrella. I suppose we could sue…

Apart from the fact that there are quite a few eggheads out there that want large numbers of us to drop dead, all of whom seem to think that if there is a massive reduction in the population, they will still survive, there remains the real question. Where the fuck do these people think they get the right to conduct such an experiment, one that could have a catastrophic effect on all life on this planet. And no, this isn’t a distant kind of possibility. The Earth has wobbled back and forth over the tipping point for an iced age repeatedly in its past without any help from us humans. People taking an action that significantly reduces the amount of energy we get from the sun could easily send us into one that never ends. And, the interesting thing about tipping points is that ANY amount of reduction could do it, and done is done. Just the fact that we have had several Ice Ages already shows we are in a fine balance between freezing and roasting as it is. Proponents of the GAIA theory imagine that life itself on a global scale is what has maintained that balance, this kind of action, cutting off the source of energy for life itself, could deal the entire planet a death blow. Maybe the earth itself could survive it somehow over millennia, I doubt we would be there to see it.

Imagine the ego you have to have to think that they can unilaterally take such an action, and tell anyone who objects to stuff it, or maybe just do it on the sly, because science, or something. One thing for certain, I’m pretty sure I won’t hear about any kind of proposal to have us vote on this anytime soon.

Cheers