Scientist: Inject Sulfur into Air to Battle Global Warming

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

One way to curb global warming is to purposely shoot sulfur into the atmosphere, a scientists suggested today.

The burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. It also releases sulfur that cools the planet by reflecting solar radiation away from Earth.

Hot Topic

Most researchers say the warming effect has been winning in recent decades.

Injecting sulfur into the second atmospheric layer closest to Earth would reflect more sunlight back to space and offset greenhouse gas warming, according to Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego.

Crutzen suggests carrying sulfur into the atmosphere via balloons and using artillery guns to release it, where the particles would stay for up to two years. The results could be seen in six months.

Nature does something like this naturally.

When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in1991, millions of tons of sulfur was injected into the atmosphere, enhancing reflectivity and cooling the Earth’s surface by an average of 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit in the year following the eruption.

“Given the grossly disappointing international political response to the required greenhouse gas emissions, ... research on the feasibility and environmental consequences of climate engineering of the kind presented in this paper, which might need to be deployed in future, should not be tabooed,” Crutzen said.

This proposal is detailed in the August issue of the journal Climatic Change.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/060...ect_sulfur.html

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

although it will probably stink for a while cause of that

[anya-D 8]

I'd say just try it

[Ric Flair 0]

Inject Flair into the air and this world will be on fire!

Woooooo!

[incanada1234 0]

How about we just get rid of all the people that believe in global warming? That way they die and we get rid of all that body heat, which should lower the temp. of the earthy, PLUS it helps over-population! I'm frickin BRILLIANT.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Say 'yes' to high sulfur coal.

[almaty 19]

Say 'yes' to high sulfur coal.

agree...more jobs for miners and we can make gas out of coal also. rich, you are indeed the man

[rclouse 0]

Everyone needs to eat more pickled eggs!

[tmma 467]

True-the release of sulphur dioxide gas from Mount Pinatubo, did infact lower global temperatures by as much as one degree celcius-especially in the mid latitudes-consistantly for 2 years ( if I remember correctly); however, that also came with consequences- acid rain;unpredicatable seasonal weather events causing drought, floods and famine along with disease all because the radiational heat driven ocean currents and pressure systems cycles around the globe were been temperarily modified..

The problem with putting more sulphur in the atmosphere is that it oxidizes to H2SO4-sulphuric acid.

It then washes out of the atmoshere as " acid" rain-heavily polluted precipitation.

They cannot layer the sulphur too high up ( "the second layer of the atmosphere") as the gravitational pull of the earth still has to be strong enough to hold it around the earth-it would have to be just above the tropopause ( a thin layer of atmosphere that seperates the air we breathe from the stratosphere)-which would still have it dissolving into the cloud systems!

My question ( and I have only read this article once); but as a meteorologist, my question would be:

How can they possibly know HOW MUCH is enough to benefit, yet not enough to cause harm? SO2 is a corrosive gas and major pollutant causing all kinds of respiratory ailments in humans not to mention damage to plant life and agriculture from acidic rain.

Lucky Strike is also in agreement with what is currently known in paleoclimatology. The climate of the Earth is indeed cyclical.

The direct effect of humans on the modification of global climate is still not yet a scientific certainty; although is no doubt that humans have indeed contributed enormously to an already polluted atmosphere; what is not known, is how much of the climate trends we are seeing are directly human related ( and somehow reverseable).

It's a no brainer, of course that every nation ( especially the USA/China/Russia--well, ok..everywhere) needs to drastically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as studies suggest that contributing as much pollutant as we do is only accelerating what could be a natural process anyway.

Personally there has to be another way other than pouring tonnes of sulphur into the atmosphere! I don't like the sound of that at all!

--Understand these are only my opinions. I have no references to cite....I only read the article once and I am in a hurry!

edit--an error-it oxidizes to become suphur dioxide which is readily dissolved in water-hence acid rain! ooops!

Edited July 28, 2006 by tmma

[Mirorgate 0]

The Ice Age is over! Long live the primates!

They are partying down at the monkey house... saw them livin it up monkey style not to long ago.

[almaty 19]

The Ice Age is over! Long live the primates!

They are partying down at the monkey house... saw them livin it up monkey style not to long ago.

any lookers???

[Mirorgate 0]

The Ice Age is over! Long live the primates!

They are partying down at the monkey house... saw them livin it up monkey style not to long ago.

any lookers???

probably... but I was to busy partyin too... relativity n all

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

The Ice Age is over! Long live the primates!

They are partying down at the monkey house... saw them livin it up monkey style not to long ago.

Yup. Flinging poo like no tomorrow.

[nayalamb 0]

where is he when we need him?

[Yodrak 7]

Gupt,

And to think, we've spent the last 20+ years and billions of dollars taking the sulphur out of fossil fuels and fossil fuel emissions. Now we've got to find ways to put it back.

Yodrak

One way to curb global warming is to purposely shoot sulfur into the atmosphere, a scientists suggested today.

The burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. It also releases sulfur that cools the planet by reflecting solar radiation away from Earth.

Hot Topic

Most researchers say the warming effect has been winning in recent decades.

Injecting sulfur into the second atmospheric layer closest to Earth would reflect more sunlight back to space and offset greenhouse gas warming, according to Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego.

Crutzen suggests carrying sulfur into the atmosphere via balloons and using artillery guns to release it, where the particles would stay for up to two years. The results could be seen in six months.

Nature does something like this naturally.

When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in1991, millions of tons of sulfur was injected into the atmosphere, enhancing reflectivity and cooling the Earth's surface by an average of 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit in the year following the eruption.

"Given the grossly disappointing international political response to the required greenhouse gas emissions, ... research on the feasibility and environmental consequences of climate engineering of the kind presented in this paper, which might need to be deployed in future, should not be tabooed," Crutzen said.

This proposal is detailed in the August issue of the journal Climatic Change.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/060...ect_sulfur.html