this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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Scientists have discovered that the recent spike in global temperatures may be caused by a reduction in sulfur dioxide pollution from shipping vessels. Ships have long emitted sulfur dioxide, which cools the planet by seeding clouds and reflecting sunlight. However, new regulations that limit sulfur in ship fuels took effect in 2020, leading to a loss of this cooling effect equivalent to a large volcanic eruption each year. Models show this reduction in sulfur dioxide pollution can explain the extra warming seen in the North Atlantic. While pollution is bad, the new regulations provide a natural experiment that gives insight into how intentional geoengineering could potentially combat climate change in the future.

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[–] MicTEST@ttrpg.network 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Hank Green has a video about this and maybe we can safely replicate the sulfur dioxide's effects by shooting sea water into the air.

https://youtu.be/dk8pwE3IByg

[–] PCurd@feddit.uk 13 points 1 year ago

OPs link is Hank’s “blog post” about that video, he links to it in the article.

[–] inso@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not sure that spreading salt is a good idea when you consider that salt kills life when you spread it on land.

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think the idea is to do it over oceans.

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But then we'll get salt in the oceans and kill all the fish.

[–] Mutoid@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We sprayed it outside the environment.

[–] strepto@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

We'll noclip out of the map and spray it out of bounds

[–] that_one_guy@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How certain could we be of where these clouds would fall once they were created?

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago

A good question, I’m not an expert on this unfortunately. A quick google search did not reveal any answers.