Geoengineer – Spray Sulfuric Acid Pollution into Atmosphere to Stop Planet Warming
David Keith Geoengineer: Could actually spray sulfuric acid pollution in the stratosphere 20 kilometers over our head and use that to stop the planet warming up in a kind of ugly Texan.
Stephen Colbert: You can spray something into the atmosphere.
David Keith Geoengineer: Spray pollution into the atmosphere to stop the planet warming. You start with a fleet of modified business jet and say 20,000 tons of sulfuric acid into the stratosphere every year. Each year you have to put a little more. This doesn’t, in the long run, mean that you can forget about cutting emissions. We will need to rein in.
Stephen Colbert: No, we’ll get to it eventually. In the meantime, we’re shrouding the planet in sulfuric acid.
David Keith Geoengineer: So people are terrified about talking about spraying this because they’re scared that it will prevent us cutting emissions.
Stephen Colbert: Right, and also that it’s sulfuric acid.
David Keith Geoengineer: We put 50 million tons of sulfuric acid in the atmosphere now as pollution, and it kills a million people a year worldwide.
Stephen Colbert: Okay, but it’ll be better if we put more in.
David Keith Geoengineer: We’re talking about 1% of that sulfuric acid pollution.
Stephen Colbert: 1% more, we’re just killing 10,000 more people on the planet.
David Keith Geoengineer: You can do math.
Stephen Colbert: What happens to the sulfuric acid after it’s sprayed? Does it just stay up there?
David Keith Geoengineer: No, it rains down, but it’s a tiny addition. We’ll already do it.
Stephen Colbert: Is there any possible way this could come back to bite us in the ass?
David Keith Geoengineer: It actually turns out to be an old idea. This was known since President Johnson.
Stephen Colbert: You ever look at those planes up there? They have contrails behind them. Maybe all those planes are the contrails. Maybe they’re actually spraying chemicals into the atmosphere right now, and Uncle Sam isn’t telling us.
David Keith Geoengineer: Seems extremely unlikely.
Stephen Colbert: The fact that the United States is not telling something to its citizens, that seems extremely likely to me.
Chicago Uiversity – David Keith Professor and Founding Faculty Director, Climate Systems Engineering Initiative
Harvard Magazine – Harvard scientist David Keith fosters the study and discussion of geoengineering
