(Or at least that’s how Al describes his risky climate scheme, to use Goracle-approved language.)
So, this happened: Al Gore dropped by Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show this week to talk…Science!
ELLEN: There’s a rumor; I don’t know if this is true or not, that some scientists are trying to figure out a way to block the sun, to try to slow down global warming.
GORE: Yeah, it’s a measure of the feeling of desperation that some of them feel.
ELLEN: Are they really thinking they could do that?
GORE: Well, uh, yeah, some of them are seriously proposing, and I think it’s completely nuts.
[AUDIENCE CHUCKLES]
GORE: You know, you put another kind of pollution, sulfur dioxide up to orbit; cover the atmosphere; the sky won’t be really blue in the way in the way it is now anymore, but it would block out some of the sun’s heat, so that we wouldn’t have to take the difficult steps to stop spewing all this global warming pollution into the atmosphere. And of course, there are a lot of problems with what they’re proposing. It turns out that plants need sunlight…
ELLEN: Yes!
GORE: …It wouldn’t stop the acidification of the oceans, and it really should be yet another wake-up call for why we need to stop putting all this pollution up there.
Say, I recall a few years ago, when someone in power proposed this very same scheme. Over to you, Obama “Science” “Czar” John Holdren, and this 2009 Associated Press report:
The president’s new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth’s air.
John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed.
One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.
“It’s got to be looked at,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of taking any approach off the table.”
I shot a Silicon Graffiti video at the time about Holdren’s peculiar pollution particle plan; as Jim Treacher tweeted back then, “that whole ‘Obama is a megalomaniac’ thing is such a ridiculous right-wing smear. By the way, now he wants to take over the weather”:
Of course, as fellow PJM columnist Zombie later noted, blocking out the sun is one of Holdren’s more benign schemes.
Later in Gore’s segment with Ellen, they discussed ways that individual citizens can stop global warming / cooling / climate change / climate chaos / whatever it’s called this week. Curiously though, not selling out to Big Oil for $100 mil after previously declaring your pet cause “an ecological Kristallnacht” didn’t make the list. Unexpectedly.
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