They think of putting into orbit reflectors to stop the poles melting , why not reflective floats in the sea ?

Question

How do you cool the seas ? Reduce exposure to the sun . So why not on Earth rather than Earth's orbit . They want to put 3 foot reflectors into an orbit to reduce the temperature and they say that the poles icecaps reflect a lot of sunshine back into space , so why not put reflecting floats on the sea , I can't see that being to hard and would surely overwhelmingly beat the orbit idea in cost effectiveness . choose the right material , best reflective colour and a coralling system to keep the floats in desired area . They don't have to be huge . Collectively a vaste amount should have an desired accumulated effect . Tell me I'm mad .

Answer 1

Well the point of the greenhouse effect is that solar energy enters the Earth's atmosphere and then gets trapped by the increased gasses. So the idea of the space reflectors is to reflect the energy before it enters the Earth's atmosphere.

If you stuck things in the ocean, not only would you still be allowing the energy into Earth's atmosphere, but you'd kill a lot of things in the ocean that require light to function. One of the main things you'd kill would be phytoplankton, which is one of the very organisms that remove the most carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the first place. Of course killing the primary source of food for oceanic organisms would be environmentally catastrophic, too, so I can't say I recommend this method.

Remember also that the Earth is really, really, really big. Small technological corrections are not going to help with global warming. It will require sustained effort over many years. That is why so many people fight it, because there is no simple solution.

Launching c**p into space is really, really expensive. A single volcano releases millions of tons of reflectors (ash) into the stratosphere. For humans to launch this much stuff into space would be impossible with current propulsion methods.  Thus, space reflectors are not a very practical solution at the moment.  There are currently much more practical solutions, such as driving slower and planting a few trees, which you should be doing anyway, because trees are pretty, and you should want to save money on gasoline.

Answer 2

You are mad.  Starkers,  loony, nutso, etc.  Happy?

Hey, here's an idea for you to think about.  Change is normal.  Nothing is as it was, nothing will stay the same.  Change isn't bad, it can be good and-or bad, but it is really neither.  It just is.  We are MAN.  We adapt, we survive.  Now we want to control but we can't yet.  People talk about all the loss of change, but do not see the loss as an opening, a beginning for something else.  We wouldn't be here to wring our hands about change if change hadn't given our ancestors the opportunities that they jumped on to make us what we are.

Things are always dying off, and being replaced.  Deal with it.