Geoengineering
Out of context: Reply #13
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- mikotondria30
100 tons of Iron Sulphate is nothing. Please understand that in the same way we can't properly conceptualise how far away the moon, or even another country is, similarly we can't understand how massive the ocean is; 3 miles deep across the whole earth, on average, 100 tonnes is 2 semi-trucks being dropped in. Utterly imperceptible unless you measure it locally and quickly. I love the ocean and everything and all that, but I don't think it's a wildly dangerous or irresponsible amount to try out, it strikes me as tiny and just enough to allow it to hang around and have a measurable effect. It might be a fantastic experiment that indicates some further understanding of the processes, at worst, the stuff will dissipate and it'll have been a waste of money. We're not talking millions of tons of oil into an estuary or along a sensitive coastline. I won't say that 'mother nature' heals itself or anything so gaian, but it's a complex system that has come to be in various states of balance and flux over 100s of millions of years - sometimes there are calamatous events that wipe out lots of life - other life seizes the niches and carries on - there's no overall direction, just the incessent adaptability of life overall to succeed in changing conditions.
I recently listened to a podcast from a geologist who'd been researching the climatic conditions at the time of the dinosaur-killing meteorite impact, and was stunned by what he said. The impact threw billions of tons of white hot quartz up into sub-orbit, which rained down on every part of the planet within 2 hours, setting fire to * every forest and plant * on the earth, think about it. Fantastic.