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A review by morgan_blackledge
Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert
5.0
A book about people trying to solve problems created by people trying to solve problems.
Elizabeth Kolbert (author of the Sixth Extinction - see my review of it here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1337863576) takes a lil’ peakiepooo at some of our possible futures which may (completely out of necessity) include any variety of climate environmental engineering tactics/disasters.
The title is derived from a solar-geo-engineering strategy that entails launching billions of tons of reflective particulate matter into the stratosphere, shielding us from solar radiation, and subsequently cooling the planet back down to “normal” (what ever that means) levels (we hope).
It may be the easiest, most practical, cheapest, most down and dirty way to save our biscuits from baking, burning and drowning, but (BIG BUT) it will probably necessitate launching tons more carbon into the atmosphere (making the actual cause of the actual problem WAY worse), and it will also have the awesomely inconceivable effect of turning the sky white.
If that doesn’t sound too bad, let it sink in for a moment…
What could possibly go wrong…
For those of you are still unconcerned about the whole white sky thing.
Please be concerned.
Please?
Because we have ABSOLUTELY no idea what the knock on effects of turning the sky white would be.
Birds and fish and stuff my not be able to migrate.
It could fuck the sleep wake cycles of literally every animal.
Not to mention the effects on agriculture.
You might not eat grains and plants.
But the cows and chickens you eat still do.
And a WOLE lot of people still do.
Particularly the ones who can’t afford to eat cows and chickens.
And that’s just the tip of the melting iceberg.
God (if you believe in that nonsense) only knows what else.
We may (at that point) need to do a bunch of other stuff to solve all the problems that the white sky thing made.
And those problems might have problems that need solving.
Cue downward spiral image and sound effect of choice
Elizabeth Kolbert (author of the Sixth Extinction - see my review of it here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1337863576) takes a lil’ peakiepooo at some of our possible futures which may (completely out of necessity) include any variety of climate environmental engineering tactics/disasters.
The title is derived from a solar-geo-engineering strategy that entails launching billions of tons of reflective particulate matter into the stratosphere, shielding us from solar radiation, and subsequently cooling the planet back down to “normal” (what ever that means) levels (we hope).
It may be the easiest, most practical, cheapest, most down and dirty way to save our biscuits from baking, burning and drowning, but (BIG BUT) it will probably necessitate launching tons more carbon into the atmosphere (making the actual cause of the actual problem WAY worse), and it will also have the awesomely inconceivable effect of turning the sky white.
If that doesn’t sound too bad, let it sink in for a moment…
What could possibly go wrong…
For those of you are still unconcerned about the whole white sky thing.
Please be concerned.
Please?
Because we have ABSOLUTELY no idea what the knock on effects of turning the sky white would be.
Birds and fish and stuff my not be able to migrate.
It could fuck the sleep wake cycles of literally every animal.
Not to mention the effects on agriculture.
You might not eat grains and plants.
But the cows and chickens you eat still do.
And a WOLE lot of people still do.
Particularly the ones who can’t afford to eat cows and chickens.
And that’s just the tip of the melting iceberg.
God (if you believe in that nonsense) only knows what else.
We may (at that point) need to do a bunch of other stuff to solve all the problems that the white sky thing made.
And those problems might have problems that need solving.
Cue downward spiral image and sound effect of choice