Aerosol particles, seawater mist, and transparent screens in space-can these seemingly madcap geo-engineering ideas be the answer to global warming?
Everybody talks about global warming but nobody does anything about it.Well, almost nobody.While world leaders bicker about how to slow the pace of global climate change, some scientists are proposing audacious global engineering schemes that would actually reverse the effects of global warming. The proposals sound like chapters from a half-baked science-fiction thriller, but today's science fiction may become tomorrow's global energy policy-particularly if the earth's climate system abruptly changes for the worse.The National Academy of Sciences and Britain's Royal Society are preparing reports on the possible benefits and dangers of global climate engineering, and the Obama administration has promised to at least consider such plans. One recent study, by researchers Dr. Eric J. Bickel and Lee Lane, contends that we could cancel out this century's global warming by spending about $9 billion on climate engineering, and that such an approach could benefit the planet as much as carbon cuts, at a fraction of the cost.But critics say that tinkering with the earth's climate could have unforeseen and disastrous consequences, and that such would-be climate "fixes" deflect attention from harder truths: the need to make sharp cuts in carbon emissions.Here's a look at some of the leading climate engineering proposals-and some possible of their problems:
Proposal: Release aerosol particles into the atmosphere to reflect solar radiation back into space.
How It Would Work: A concentrated stream of sulfur dioxide particles released into the troposphere and lower stratosphere would reproduce the effects of volcanic eruptions such as that of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, which was followed by a global cooling of about 1 degree Fahrenheit. The effects of an aerosol release would gradually dissipate as the particles fell back to Earth, just as the sulphate from volcanoes eventually disperse. Keeping the planet cooled with aerosol releases would cost an estimated $30 billion per year if the particles were fired from military artillery guns, or $8 billion annually if delivered by aircraft, according to a recent report by a climate engineering study group sponsored by the nonprofit Novim Group. The study's authors say the aerosol scheme could be tested on a small scale-say, an experiment to cool a small portion of the Arctic-before being implemented globally.Possible Problems: The planet's climate system might be too complex-and the unintended consequences too dire-for the aerosol plan to be considered safe. Aerosol releases could make matters worse if the particles don't dissipate as quickly as anticipated. Even a closely monitored aerosol release would likely affect different areas of the planet in varying ways, greatly increasing international tensions between climate "winners" and "losers." An aerosol release program costing billions of dollars would be seen by some as a convenient substitute for reductions in greenhouse gas emission, undercutting efforts to deal with the root causes of the climate change problem. A small-scale experimental release of aerosols might not yield clear results, and would need to be observed for a long time in order to produce meaningful data.
Proposal: Spray seawater mist from ships into low-lying clouds to cool the Earth.
How it Would Work: This scheme, sometimes called "marine cloud whitening," would shoot an extremely fine mist of sea spray into low clouds so that the clouds become brighter and reflect more sunlight away from Earth. This cloud-brightening technology was deemed the most promising form of climate engineering in the aforementioned study by Bickel and Lane. Preliminary calculations by the researchers show that marine cloud whitening could produce enough cooling to offset a doubling of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, at a cost of no more than $9 billion. Compared to sulphur dioxide aerosol releases, marine cloud whitening is considered less risky, since it introduces natural sea spray into the air, and the particles would precipitate quickly.Possible Problems: Besides the danger of unintended consequences inherent in any planetary-scale climate engineering plan, marine cloud whitening faces potential technical and political problems. No one has come up with a practical way to produce a seawater aerosol of the required volume and concentration, or developed a reliable device to launch the spray into low-lying clouds. A large flotilla of ships numbering in the thousands would have to be deployed across the globe to spray the sea mist, and disputes are likely among countries over the coverage area and who gets to define what the optimum climate should be.
Proposal: Install arrays of pulsed lasers at mountain altitudes that would selectively destroy chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere and reduce the greenhouse effect.
How it Would Work: A National Academy of Sciences study team looked into the laser idea in the 1990s. A large array of pulsed lasers deployed on mountain peaks would focus intense infrared beams into the troposphere. The lasers would selectively destroy chlorofluorocarbons through a process known as multiphoton dissociation, a technique that fragments gas molecules.Possible Problems: The laser proposal hasn't advanced much beyond the idea stage. No one has come up with a workable plan to build and install a laser array, or determined how many lasers would be needed and at what cost. The National Academy of Sciences study into climate engineering technologies couldn't put a price tag on the laser plan, and warned that climate-changing technologies should not be implemented "without careful assessment of their direct and indirect consequences."
Proposal: Deploy an array of space-based sun shields that would focus small amounts of the sun's light away from Earth.
How it Would Work: The idea of using an array of screens in space has been kicking around for more than a decade. The latest proposal comes from the University of Arizona astronomer and optics expert Roger Angel, who suggests launching of a vast network of two-foot wide thin transparent disks into orbit above the earth. Each disk would act as lens, collecting a small amount of the sun's energy and focusing it away from Earth. The units would feature tilting reflecting panels and solar-powered positioning controls to help prevent collisions. Angel's proposed sun shield array-to be deployed if climate change takes a sudden turn for the worse-would cut incoming sunlight by an estimated 1.8 percent, and counteract the warming expected from a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide.Possible Problems: Even Angel admits that his plan would require a stupendous number of sun shields-as many as 16 trillion refractors flying in formation over an area of nearly 3 million square miles. Even if such an ambitious plan was successfully deployed, it would be almost impossible to ensure that some screens wouldn't fail and fall back to Earth. Such a technically complex array of reflectors would inevitably be funded and controlled by a few major powers, but everyone would suffer the consequences.
Proposal: Capture and remove carbon dioxide already in the air through a variety of "carbon scrubbing" techniques.
How it Would Work: Carbon scrubbing is by far the most predictable form of climate engineering. It doesn't introduce foreign substances into the atmosphere, but rather aims to clean the air that's already there. One proposed carbon scrubbing technique is to build so-called "synthetic trees"-high-tech towers with specially designed resin filters that capture CO2 in the air and collect it for later processing or storage. Klaus Lackner, a geophysicist at Columbia, says that while the technology is expensive (about $30,000 per tower), the first synthetic trees could be up and running within about two years.Possible Problems: Capturing CO2 after it has been released into the atmosphere will never be as effective as capturing it at the source or preventing it from being emitted in the first place. A Royal Society scientist estimated that millions of CO2 scrubbers would have to be deployed to make a significant dent in global warming, at a cost of about $20 trillion. The enormous amount of money needed to scrub the atmosphere of considerable amounts of CO2 would be better spent on reducing or eliminating carbon emissions in the first place.
Throughout history, women have stood up and fought to break down barriers imposed on them from stereotypes and societal expectations. The trailblazers in these photos made history and redefined what a woman could be. In doing so, they paved the way for future generations to stand up and continue to fight for equality.
While conspiracy theories are not limited to any topic, there is one type of event that seems particularly likely to spark them: mass shootings, typically defined as attacks in which a shooter kills at least four other people.
When one person kills many others in a single incident, particularly when it seems random, people naturally seek out answers for why the tragedy happened. After all, if a mass shooting is random, anyone can be a target.
In the United States, where some significant portion of the public believes that the government is out to take their guns, the idea that a mass shooting was orchestrated by the government in an attempt to make guns look bad may be appealing both psychologically and ideologically.
Our studies of mass shootings and conspiracy theories help to shed some light on why these events seem particularly prone to the development of such theories and what the media can do to limit the ideas' spread.
Back to the 1990s
Mass shootings and conspiracy theories have a long history. As far back as the mid-1990s, amid a spate of school shootings, Cutting Edge Ministries, a Christian fundamentalist website, found a supposed connection between the attacks and then-President Bill Clinton.
The group's website claimed that when lines were drawn between groups of school-shooting locations across the U.S., they crossed in Hope, Arkansas, Clinton's hometown. The Cutting Edge Ministries concluded from this map that the "shootings were planned events, with the purpose of convincing enough Americans that guns are an evil that needs to be dealt with severely, thus allowing the Federal Government to achieve its Illuminist goal of seizing all weapons."
Beliefs persist today that mass shootings are staged events, complete with "crisis actors," people who are paid to pretend to be victims of a crime or disaster, all as part of a conspiracy by the government to take away people's guns. The idea has been linked to such tragedies as the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, and the Sandy Hook Elementary attack that resulted in the deaths of 20 children in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
These beliefs can become widespread when peddled by prominent people. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been in the news recently because of her belief that the Parkland shooting was a "false flag," an event that was disguised to look like another group was responsible. It's not clear, though, in this instance who Rep. Greene felt was really to blame.
After the country's deadliest mass shooting to date, with 59 dead and hundreds injured in Las Vegas in 2017, the pattern continued: A conspiracy theory arose that there were multiple shooters, and the notion that the shooting was really done for some other purpose than mass murder.
Making sense of the senseless
These conspiracy theories are all attempts to make sense of incomprehensibly terrifying events. If a lone shooter, with no clear motive, can singlehandedly take the lives of 60 individuals, while injuring hundreds more, then is anyone really safe?
Conspiracy theories are a way of understanding information. Historian Richard Hofstadter has indicated they can provide motives for events that defy explanation. Mass shootings, then, create an opportunity for people to believe there are larger forces at play, or an ultimate cause that explains the event.
For instance, an idea that a shooter was driven mad by antipsychoticdrugs, distributed by the pharmaceutical industry, can provide comfort as opposed to the thought that anyone can be a victim or perpetrator.
Polls have shown that people worry a lot about mass shootings, and more than 30% of Americans said in 2019 that they refused to go particular places such as public events or the mall for fear of being shot.
If the shootings are staged, or the results of an enormous, unknowable or mysterious effort, then they at least becomes somewhat comprehensible. That thought process satisfies the search for a reason that can help people feel more comfort and security in a complex and uncertain world – especially when the reason found either removes the threat or makes it somehow less random.
Some people blame mass shootings on other factors like mental illness that make gun violence an individual issue, not a societal one, or say these events are somehow explained by outside forces. These ideas may seem implausible to most, but they do what conspiracy theories are intended to do: provide people with a sense of knowing and control.
They also misdirect blame and distract from efforts to better understand tragedies such as mass shootings. High-quality scholarship could investigate how to better protect public places. But robust debates about how to reduce events such as mass shootings will be less effective if some significant portion of the public believes they are manufactured.
These steps can work, as shown by the substantial drop in misinformation on Twitter following former President Donald Trump's removal from the platform.
Mass shootings may be good fodder for conspiracy theories, but that does not mean people should actually consume such ideas without necessary context or disclaimers.
Michael Rocque is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Bates College.
Stephanie Kelley-Romano is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies at Bates College
This article first appeared on The Conversation on 02.20.21.. You can read it here.
Between the bras, makeup, periods, catcalling, sexism, impossible-to-attain beauty standards, and heels, most men wouldn't survive being a woman for a day without having a complete mental breakdown. So here's a slideshow of some of the funniest Tumblr posts about the everyday struggles that women face that men would never understand.
In some states, women are put through humiliating and dangerous pre-abortion medical consultations and waiting periods before being allowed to undergo the procedure. In four states, women are even forced to bury or cremate the fetal remains after the procedure.
These government-mandated roadblocks and punitive shaming serve no purpose but to make it more difficult, emotionally damaging, and expensive for women to have an abortion.
Eighteen states currently have laws that force women to delay their abortions unnecessarily: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin. In a number of other states, mandatory-delay laws have been enacted but are enjoined or otherwise unenforced.
To help women get around these burdensome regulations, The Satanic Temple is promoting a religious ritual it believes provides an exemption from restrictions. According to the Temple, the ritual is supported by the federal Religious Freedoms Restoration Act.
The Temple is a religious organization that claims it doesn't believe "in the existence of Satan or the supernatural" but that "religion can, and should, be divorced from superstition."
The Temple says its exemption is made possible by a precedent set by the Supreme Court's 2014 Hobby Lobby decision. According to the Temple, it prevents the government from putting a "burden on free exercise of religion without a compelling reason."
Ironically, Hobby Lobby's case claimed that providing insurance coverage for birth control conflicted with the employer's Christian faith. The Satanic Temple argues that unnecessary roadblocks to abortion conflict with theirs.
The Temple is promoting the ritual on I-95 billboards in Florida where women must endure an ultrasound and go through pre-procedure, anti-choice counseling before having an abortion.
The Temple's billboards inform women that they can circumvent the restrictions by simply citing a Satanic ritual.
"Susan, you're telling me I do not have to endure a waiting period when I have an abortion?" one of the women on the billboard says.
"That's true if you're a SATANIST!" the other replies.
Next to the ladies is a symbol of a goat head in a pentagram and a message about the ritual.
The Temple also provides a letter that women seeking abortions can provide to medical staff. It explains the ritual and why it exempts them from obligations that are an undue burden to their religious practice.
The Temple believes that some medical practitioners may reject its requests. However, it believes that doing so is a violation of religious freedom and it will take legal action if necessary.
"It would be unconstitutional to require a waiting period before receiving holy communion," the temple says in a video. "It would be illegal to demand Muslims receive counseling prior to Ramadan. It would be ridiculous to demand that Christians affirm in writing the unscientific assertion that baptism can cause brain cancers."
"So we expect the same rights as any other religious organization," the video says.
To perform the ritual, a woman looks into a mirror to affirm their personhood and responsibility to herself. Once the woman is focused and comfortable, they are to recite two of the Temple's Seven Tenets.
Tenet III: One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone. One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone.
Tenet V. Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.
Then they are to recite a personal affirmation: "By my body, my blood. Then by my will, it is done."
The ritual affirms The Temple's belief in personal responsibility and liberty that, coincidentally, mirror that of the U.S. Constitution.
"Satan is a symbol of the Eternal Rebel in opposition to arbitrary authority, forever defending personal sovereignty even in the face of insurmountable odds," the Temple's website reads.
There are two types of people in this world – those who panic and fill up their cars with gas when the needle hits 25% or so, and people like me who wait until the gas light comes on, then check the odometer so you can drive the entire 30 miles to absolute empty before coasting into a gas station on fumes.
I mean…it's not empty until it's empty, right?
But just how far can you drive your car once that gas light comes on? Should you trust your manual?
Now, thanks to Your Mechanic sharing this information in a recent post, you can know for sure. Of course, they also want to warn you that driving on a low fuel level or running out of gas can actually damage your car.
Now, thanks to Your Mechanic sharing this information in a recent post, you can know for sure. Of course, they also want to warn you that driving on a low fuel level or running out of gas can actually damage your car.
Proceed at your own risk.
These are, of course, approximations that depend on several factors, including how you drive, your car's condition, etc. So don't automatically blame your mechanic if you find yourself stranded on the side of the road.
If you ask people what they think the “perfect" body looks like, you're sure to get a range of answers, depending on where the person is from. Last year, Superdrug Online Doctor created a project, “Perceptions of Perfection" that showed what people in 18 countries think the “perfect" woman looks like. The project was a viral hit.
This time, they asked graphic designers—11 women and eight men—in 19 countries to photoshop the same image to highlight the male beauty standards for their country.
Some of the images are certainly amusing, but the collective result is an interesting look at what people find attractive around the world.
It's not revolutionary news that smoking wreaks havoc on your body in different ways. More often than not, however, the focus of anti-smoking campaigns is on your internal health, citing emphysema, heart disease, and lung cancer, to name just a few consequences.
While the superficial effects may not be as lethal, appealing to people's sense of vanity can have a powerful effect as this clever gallery below shows. Twins, only one of whom smokes, sit side by side, showing the profound damage smoking can cause to your face, hair, and teeth.
The twins' circumstances vary in each set of pictures, but the differences and effects are undeniable. In some instances, one of the twins never smoked. In others, the “smoking" twin had smoked for at least five years longer than the other “non-smoking" twin.
Though they're not common knowledge, the effects of smoking on your appearance are predictable and consistent. You can identify a smoker with ease if you know what you're looking for. Harmful smoke, dehydration, and even the heat from a burning cigarette can damage your complexion, hair, and eyes. The photos below helpfully point out the symptoms and effects on the smoking twin.
The photos here were taken from those of 79 pairs of identical twins at the Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio. Though they weren't taken with this use in mind, that allows them to serve as an even more powerful testament to the effects as perceived by casual observers.
1. The eyes are a strong “tell" if someone's a smoker or not. In this photo, the smoker is the man on the right. He has smaller, more sunken eyes and carries more wrinkles throughout his face than his twin on the left. You'll also notice his hairline has receded further than his brother's. That's a little-known though hardly surprising effect of smoking habitually.
2. Here, the difference is profound. Though they're the same age, they look almost like they represent different generations. The smoking twin on the right has done so for 16 years, and it's manifested in a number of ways. Most noticeable is the pervasive discoloration of her skin compared to her twin on the left. Less noticeable, but still apparent, is the damage done to her lips, eyes, and even her hair. It's difficult to believe they're even related, let alone twins.
3. This comparison is less glaring but still apparent. The twin on the left is the smoker. You can see many more pronounced wrinkles on her forehead, under her eyes, and around her nose. There are also pronounced bags under her eyes.
4. In this comparison, the smoking twin only smokes about two cigarettes per day, so the difference will be less profound. The twin on the right is the smoker. The differences are on the subtle side, mostly the more damaged hair and the squintier eyes.
5. Based on what you've read in the earlier side by side pics, you might be able to ID the right twin as the smoker due to the discolored and receding hair as well as the aged skin.
6. These two twins are both elderly, so the differences are slightly less pronounced. Though the left twin has more graying hair, it's the right twin that's the smoker. She's got a droopier face, especially on the outside of the eyes. The wrinkles are also more pronounced in the brow and upper lip.
7. Though the two sisters here are also older, it's easier to distinguish the smoker. The left sister bears the hallmarks all over her skin. Her cheek, outer eye, and neck all look weathered from her habit. Not only is she more wrinkled, but the skin has begun to discolor from the fair tone her sister has.
8. Here it's pretty difficult to tell. The woman on the left is the smoker. She sports slightly discolored lips that are upon inspection, more wrinkled than her sister's. Since the lips are the most proximate to the smoke, they are a pretty telling feature when it comes to identifying smokers.
The pics above show a lot of singular traits that can call out a smoker, but it can be a lot more simple than that. Speaking to the NY Daily News, dermatologist Elizabeth Tanzi from George Washington Medical Center dispenses with the jargon, stating, “Smoking makes you look old. That's all there is to it."
Body autonomy means a person has the right to whatever they want with their own body.
We live in a world where people are constantly telling women what they can or can't do with their bodies. Women get it form all sides — Washington, their churches, family members, and even doctors.
A woman on Twitter who goes by the name Salome Strangelove recently went viral for discussing the importance of female body autonomy.
Here's how it started.
She continued talking about how her mother had a difficult pregnancy.
Her mother asked her doctor about the possibility of sterilization.
As was typical of the times, she was chastised by her male, Catholic doctor.
Her mother was made to feel guilty about simply exploring the medical options about her own body. But later on, a new doctor made her feel more comfortable about her situation.
None
Once her mother had the courage to speak up, her own family members supported her.
TikTok shocked by 15-year-old unhinged viral clip of kids performing Scarface in school play