Re: [Phys-l] H. Sapiens

[Hugh Haskell <haskellh@verizon.net>]

At 22:14 -0400 09/22/2010, chuck britton wrote:
> Nuclear Winter could be a way to reverse the current Global Warming.
> A single nuclear blast  could reproduce the Krakatoa volcano's cooling effect.
> Giving us enough time to remove CO2 from the atm and sequester it
> under seas etc.
I wonder. Russia's "Tsar Bomba" test (59 MT--the largest on record) 
while it sent its radioactive cloud around the earth several times 
didn't have the climate effect that happened after Krakatoa, or some 
other very large eruptions. That might have been because it was 
conducted near or above the arctic circle. But the US "Bravo" 
test--the second largest at 15 MT) was conducted in the tropics and 
it also had no noticeable effect on climate, although several hundred 
Marshall Islanders received large radiation doses from the fallout 
(undoubtedly leading to a significant number of deaths, though never 
admitted to by the US gov't) and one death to a crewman of the Lucky 
Dragon.

I suspect that it would require a significant exchange (one the order 
of 20 weapons or more) resulting in substantial damage to flammable 
regions in order to create the climate effects comparable to Krakatoa.

Present idea about CO2 removal from the atmosphere are in their 
infancy, and all so far are projected to take decades to be 
effective, if ever, once deployed. Frankly I don't think I'm 
interested in trading the 10-20 million lives and extensive 
destruction of a significant nuclear exchange for the possibility 
that we would be able to use that time to remove several billion tons 
of CO2 from the atmosphere, and put it into the ocean where the 
resulting carbonic acid could reduce the pH of the oceans to the 
point that most, if not all, marine life could be extinguished.

I much prefer Art Rosenfeld's "white roof'" idea coupled with 
transportation electrification and eliminating coal as an electricity 
source. Not only would painting all roofs worldwide drastically 
reduce the building energy use, it would also change the earth's 
albedo by enough to stop the warning trend pretty much in its tracks.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
mailto:hugh@ieer.org
mailto:haskellh@verizon.net

It isn't easy being green.

		--Kermit Lagrenouille