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 No doubt about it, the Earth is heating up thanks to our reliance on and profligate use of carbon-based fuels. Many solutions have been proffered and almost all focus on lowering the amount of energy we consume and shifting to alternatives—particularly solar, wind and nuclear power—that produce much less or no carbon emissions. But what about more creative ways of cooling the planet?
There are some options for us to negate the effects of global warming without changing the quantity or type of energy we use. One encouraging idea is to use sun filters positioned in space; another is to establish space-based cooling plants. These remain theoretical, but they are worthy of discussion.
Sunglasses for the Earth
The first idea involves installing, between the sun and the Earth, a field of gigantic sun filters to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the planet. Each filter would be made of lightweight material to partially block sunlight. Alternatively, Mylar sheets could be used to completely block sunlight and reflect it, requiring fewer filters to achieve the same reduction in heat transfer.
The filters could be mass-produced on rolls, then unrolled in space using tiny rockets connected to the ends of each sheet. (The rocket technology necessary to unfurl these sheets in space has not yet been developed, so this idea would require some new rocket science as well.) Though a significant amount of energy would be used initially to create and place the filters, they would require little maintenance because no moving parts are used, and the system would cool the atmosphere by lowering the amount of light that reaches it
A field of sun filters spanning 750 miles in length and 90 miles in height could be positioned in geostationary orbit between the sun and the arctic region, the body of currently melting ice. Such a field could have 500 individual filters, each having dimensions of one mile by one mile, placed in a row along an x-axis. Empty space of one-half mile could separate each sheet. Sixty filters could be placed in columns along the y-axis, again having empty space of one-half mile for separation, for a total height of 90 miles.
Such a field would require 30,000 filters (60 x 500), and would significantly reduce the amount of sunlight that reaches the arctic region. By lowering the amount of heat transferred to the surface, the temperature of the region would be reduced.
Earth-Sized Air Conditioners
It’s ironic that we worry over global warming. The Earth, after all, is something like a spec of dust in a universe that spans some 15 billion light years, and nearly this entire universe is a vacuum having an average temperature approaching absolute zero. When it comes to global warming, we could just "chill" so to speak, and leverage our proximity to an almost infinite supply of cooling potential.
This is where the second intriguing idea—building cooling plants in space—presents itself. Each cooling plant would be placed in synchronous orbit some 500 miles above the Earth's surface, connected to a cable or cables made of lightweight, composite materials stronger than steel. The length of each cable would be over 1000 miles, so that each would extend from the cooling station in space to a ground station and back, something like a conveyer belt.
Connected to each cable would be a series of lightweight containers used to capture extremely cold air at the edge of space. Each would have an open door that would close and seal at the edge of space. The containers would move along the cable to the surface, where the cold air would be released. On the return journey to space, the containers would trap hot air from the surface via the same door, move it to the edge of space and then release it. In this manner, the system would cool the atmosphere by moving cold air from the edge of space to the surface, and hot air from the surface to the edge of space.
Hundreds or perhaps thousands of these plants could be built and positioned around the planet to cool it. The cooling plants could be powered by nuclear power supplemented with solar power. An additional advantage of this approach is that the energy required to run these Earth air-conditioners could be created by power stations positioned in space so that heat is not created on the surface.
Comparative Cost
At first glance, the costs of these proposals may seem extravagant, but it is important to place the costs in context. When compared to the amount of time and money spent on regulation, design, manufacture and maintenance of emission-control equipment on vehicles and factories over the past forty years, the costs of the proposals seem more reasonable. In fact, sun filters, the cheaper of the two proposals, would require less ongoing resources over the next one hundred years than the emission-control equipment just mentioned. After the filters are initially placed, they will require few if any resources to maintain, although they may eventually require replacement.
It's said an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But if, after additional theorizing and study, creative ways of cooling the planet such as sun filters and space-based cooling plants are shown to be simpler, less expensive and less intrusive to our way of life, we should consider them as potential cure.
 Jacques Brian Trusseau is an attorney and writer who has helped many inventors obtain patents. A graduate of George Washington University Law School, he is a humble student of both law and science, and an admirer of Hubble and Descartes. He hopes to find better technical approaches to global warming issues. He likes trees.
Updated 8/20/10; originally posted 2/16/09.
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