Let us suppose that science created a global cooling machine. Suppose, e.g, it consisted a large flat sheet of material that would be in permanent orbit blocking out 0.1% of the sun’s rays from ever hitting the earth. Or, maybe it’s a way to create artificial clouds that will reflect some sunlight back out into space. Anyhow. it’s finally built. You were just elected President of the World. Would you turn it on?
I would hesitate to do so, myself. I’m not certain enough that global warming is occurring and I would worry about possible unintended consequences of reducing the earth’s sunlight.
What would you do?
[sub]If you say that as President of the World, you would ignore global warming and focus on getting blow jobs from interns in your office, then you flunk![/sub]
Gee- that’s a hard question- blow jobs versus the end of the world… I’m going to have to think (in black and white, of course)- BUT WAIT— that awful stuff about global warming came from THE BUREAUCRACY* so it is obviously wrong…listen- is she gonna bring some coke too???---- Oh Hey-- John just told me about how they just caught this guy that was gonna nuke us- you know- he had nukular weapons and all- really no REALLY HE DID and he was gonna use them right now and that would have been a whole lot worse than some old glacier melting now wouldn’t it so you can’t say that I’m not on the ball cause after all I wanted to be the baseball commissioner and you’ve really got to be on the ball if you’re the baseball commissioner…Karen???..where’s Karen???..no Karl I WANT KAREN!!!
that would be needlessly expensive. Just set off a volcano to cool the earth. But not that big of one, otherwise you’ll repeate the summer of 1816. (what summer of 1816, you ask? so did the people that year!)
A fun question, December. So many variables though. Does the cooling machine cool unilaterally? If so I wouldn’t turn it on because that could cause more problems than it solves. Global warming is happening at different times and in varying degrees in different areas.
To me, the main argument for changing human behavior that is posited as the cause for global warming is the unpredictability and complexity of the system. Even if we try to affect it positively we still may not know the consequences of our actions. I think we’re probably better off leaving things as they were.
If I could turn on the “Reduce human impact on the environment” machine though, I probably would.