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Comment by NoMoreNicksLeft | Hacker News Reader

The right has been accused of denialism for decades at this point, but any time solutions they might be in favor of are proposed, the left gives us hysterics about how geo-engineering is too dangerous to contemplate.

This leads me to believe that they're lying about how important it is to them. Supposedly, it is a world-ending scenario... at least when it comes to wrecking economies. But the moment real fixes are discussed it's "oh no, we can't do that". Considering how much they've had hardons for economic meddling for a century and a half at this point, why should I believe that it's anything other than a ploy to do what they've always wanted?

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> But the moment real fixes are discussed

Yeah, Nuh.

"detonating thermonuclear weapons to throw enough dust above the troposphere to cool the planet down" isn't a real solution, and we've done this before .. leaving aside the two atomic detonations at the end of WWII and looking just at the 2,000 test detonations since (many larger, much larger, than the H & N explosions) the absolute worst case examples were ground level blasts that lifted material into the sky. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo

Better fixes include inflating bubbles between the earth and sun to reduce incoming light .. at least that one is reversable and fine tuneable.

Or, you know, maybe consuming less and winding down a bit on the baby making?

Woa! Be careful! Baby making seems like a holy activity for some people on HN and elsewhere. Any time you suggest not having as many children or not making as babies all around the world, some very intelligent person will put words in your mouth and reinterpret your words in bad ways, to be able to call you a murderer or similar. Part of the problem.

And of course when it comes to making babies almost everyone thinks, that their child or they themselves are special and it is OK to have more than one child for them. Especially comfortable when they already have two or more children, or for some ego reason want more children than proposed. Oh and never dare to mention China and one child policy either in this context, or the consequences for the world, if that policy had not existed.

Demographic implosion is a real thing. Japan's population is already dropping, and it's only just starting to pick up steam, with most western nations only a decade or two behind.

China can't even turn off their "one child policy". It was a switch they could flip, and now can't unflip. How's that going to work out for them?

My children are enthusiastic about becoming parents themselves one day, and I wouldn't be shocked if we get 6 or more grandchildren. Turns out, all you have to do is always behave as if having children is a good thing... which was easy for me, since it is. It seems likely that the future will look alot more like me than it will look like you.

> "detonating thermonuclear weapons to throw enough

Don't need thermonukes. Seed the oceans with iron.

The expert opinions that I've seen so far have indicated that geoengineering at any scale that we're realistically able to produce on a short notice is unlikely to have a sufficient effect on climate change. Essentially it's a pipe dream at best, and a way to create additional (localised) disasters at worst.

If the only proper argument for doing it is that "the left" is against it and "the right" is for it, that seems comparatively weak.

The expert opinions that come from the same people who don't want it to happen? How much are those worth?

That sounds like a critique far more applicable to non-experts arguing that there's no need for any kind of modification to our consumption patterns or energy use, because if "the left" really cared about the environment they'd just set off our nukes or radically change the composition of our oceans instead

It would be pretty strange for experts to recommend doing something that they consider ineffective or harmful.

It would be strange, if this were truly an emergency, for people who believed it to be an emergency of the highest degree...

To whine and screech "that's too dangerous, don't do that" when other people were proposing solutions. These are the same people who are touted as the experts, mind you. This means that when journalists and talking heads and other jackasses say "but the experts don't even think those things will work", they are talking about the same people who claim that there is an emergency in the first place.

They aren't interested in potential solutions. It's just an attempt to wrestle political power away from those who currently have it and implement economy-murdering policy because they're mad poor people eat meat.

Firing thermonuclear bombs doesnt sound like first thing on the list we should try. It feels like it belongs atleast in the middle.

Same people (the rich) have been in power for a long time in much of the world. Its like they need anyones permission to do anything.

Amazing that now the effects of climate denial by the right, the right-winger in the comment tries to deny it.

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