<story><title>Delhi suffers at 49°C as heatwave sweeps India</title><url>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-61242341</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Lammy</author><text>I really wish humanity would get serious about exploring geoengineering options to prevent mass suffering and death while we collectively work toward lowered emissions.&lt;p&gt;Freeman Dyson was talking about this even way back in 1979, echoed by Edward Teller (yes, &lt;i&gt;that&lt;/i&gt; Edward Teller!) in 1997: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wsj.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;SB877028953900981000&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wsj.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;SB877028953900981000&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or in USAF&amp;#x27;s 1996 presentation &amp;quot;Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025&amp;quot;: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;web.archive.org&amp;#x2F;web&amp;#x2F;19970429012543&amp;#x2F;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.au.af.mil&amp;#x2F;au&amp;#x2F;2025&amp;#x2F;volume3&amp;#x2F;chap15&amp;#x2F;vol3ch15.pdf#page=21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;web.archive.org&amp;#x2F;web&amp;#x2F;19970429012543&amp;#x2F;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.au.af....&lt;/a&gt; (PDF)&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s probably no way for us to publicly know the extent of what all has been considered or tested in secret, but it&amp;#x27;s reassuring to me to see that there&amp;#x27;s historical interest from groups who would have the clout and the means to actually do something about it. Even if we haven&amp;#x27;t discovered a safe and workable sun-shielding technology that can be deployed widely, ruling out things that won&amp;#x27;t work is an important step toward getting there. Maybe this can be the Space Force&amp;#x27;s defining moment!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jillesvangurp</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s far cheaper and less disruptive to simply make a hurry with shutting down the burning of oil, gas, and coal. Simply stop burning the stuff. We no longer need to. We have alternatives. Plenty of them and they are still getting better. So, stop building more gas and coal plants. Start planning the decommissioning of the remaining ones. Like this decade and not in half a century. Legislate &amp;amp; tax ICE vehicles out of existence. Get it done quickly.&lt;p&gt;India in particular is insisting on their right to build more coal plants and ramp up the amount of fossil fuels they burn over the next decade. The sense of urgency is a bit lacking over there. They feel entitled to helping destroy our planet. And you could argue it would be fair given other countries have done their part and continue doing so. But it&amp;#x27;s our planet. Let&amp;#x27;s stop destroying it instead. Cop 26 nearly got some broad agreement on this. Two notable countries that could not commit to this: India and China. Even the US was broadly OK with the timelines.&lt;p&gt;India is a likely ground zero for wet bulb heat events and other global warming related misery. Burning more coal is not going to help them. They&amp;#x27;ll spend billions more on cleaning up the aftermath of that then they will save building those plants.&lt;p&gt;If we still need to do geo engineering &amp;amp; terra forming after we get to net 0 carbon, we can do that of course. Those new SpaceX starships might help getting some hardware into orbit at scale. But short term it&amp;#x27;s neither the cheap, fast, nor easy way out. Current ETA for net zero is around 2060. And that&amp;#x27;s if everybody is on their best behavior. I think we could do better than that. We&amp;#x27;re not trying anywhere near hard enough. Any carbon not added to our atmosphere is carbon we don&amp;#x27;t have to remove or mitigate.</text></comment>
<story><title>Delhi suffers at 49°C as heatwave sweeps India</title><url>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-61242341</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Lammy</author><text>I really wish humanity would get serious about exploring geoengineering options to prevent mass suffering and death while we collectively work toward lowered emissions.&lt;p&gt;Freeman Dyson was talking about this even way back in 1979, echoed by Edward Teller (yes, &lt;i&gt;that&lt;/i&gt; Edward Teller!) in 1997: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wsj.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;SB877028953900981000&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wsj.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;SB877028953900981000&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or in USAF&amp;#x27;s 1996 presentation &amp;quot;Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025&amp;quot;: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;web.archive.org&amp;#x2F;web&amp;#x2F;19970429012543&amp;#x2F;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.au.af.mil&amp;#x2F;au&amp;#x2F;2025&amp;#x2F;volume3&amp;#x2F;chap15&amp;#x2F;vol3ch15.pdf#page=21&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;web.archive.org&amp;#x2F;web&amp;#x2F;19970429012543&amp;#x2F;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.au.af....&lt;/a&gt; (PDF)&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s probably no way for us to publicly know the extent of what all has been considered or tested in secret, but it&amp;#x27;s reassuring to me to see that there&amp;#x27;s historical interest from groups who would have the clout and the means to actually do something about it. Even if we haven&amp;#x27;t discovered a safe and workable sun-shielding technology that can be deployed widely, ruling out things that won&amp;#x27;t work is an important step toward getting there. Maybe this can be the Space Force&amp;#x27;s defining moment!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sammalloy</author><text>The easiest first step is to start installing white roofs in urban areas.  This should be national policy by now.  It’s been four years since this policy was recommended and nothing has been done.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;e360.yale.edu&amp;#x2F;features&amp;#x2F;urban-heat-can-white-roofs-help-cool-the-worlds-warming-cities&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;e360.yale.edu&amp;#x2F;features&amp;#x2F;urban-heat-can-white-roofs-he...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>