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Discussion » Questions » Environment » How do you feel about salting the clouds?

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  • 11150

    It doesn't seen like a good thing for the environment. But maybe desperate times need drastic measures. The idea behind it is to reflect sun light away from the earth to combat globule warming. Cheers!

      April 7, 2024 2:34 PM MDT
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  • 17611
    Bad idea.  Not a new idea.  Did not happen until sneaking to do it...............makes it sketchy right away.  Just say no to interfering with nature in this way......same with weather.
      April 8, 2024 11:46 AM MDT
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  • 1502
    I appreciate that there are organizations like the Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering, with an eye on how such practices can affect people; an eye, that is, with much greater clarity than mine. Truth be told, we're already interfering with nature. This post was edited by Danilo_G at April 9, 2024 6:34 AM MDT
      April 8, 2024 12:54 PM MDT
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  • 3719
    Is it a serious proposition? It seems a very chancy experiment with low useful yield.

    Clouds by their nature are ephemeral so all that salt will just come back as salty rain and snow, or as fine crystals.

    Also, even the blackest-looking storm-clouds are pure white on top so already reflecting a lot of solar radiation back upstairs. It's not visible light that needs reflecting but infra-red (heat).

    Ideas like this have been around fro decades, sometimes leading to a lot of utter twaddle drifting around the antisocial-meejah about conspiracies and the like, but in fact the influence on the weather would be small and local, and on the climate generally, probably miniscule. The environmental cost of processing the salt and spraying it on the clouds would probably considerably outweigh any short-term advantage.

    As a rough guide to the scale of things, a big, fair-weather cumulus cloud weighs thousands of tonnes (total of its myriad water-droplets). The energy being transferred or converted in an ordinary temperate-zone weather system, about 1600km diameter, is vastly greater than anything we can create.
      July 5, 2024 2:47 PM MDT
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  • 34431
    Yes, they seriously did this stuff. This post was edited by my2cents at July 5, 2024 4:44 PM MDT
      July 5, 2024 4:31 PM MDT
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  • 23637
    Yes, I remember researching it all a bit after seeing your question.
      July 5, 2024 4:44 PM MDT
    1