I was thinking during the night and while waking up what mankind can do to reduce Global Climate Change and all its effects as it slowly spins more and more out of control.
Since as humans we mostly live on the land I want to concentrate what people can do on the land. First of all, you might think that since green is the color of the leaves of trees and pine and fir needles that green would absorb more heat than say white or silver. This is true. But if you have ever stood under any tree in the summertime when its leaves are full and benefited from the shade they provide you also know those green leaves also keep the ground beneath those trees cool. So, therefore even though photosynthesis is going on in all those leaves all over the world to convert sunlight into clorophyll to feed the tree just like solar cells convert photons into solar generated electricity for humans, the trees leaves keep the ground cool for you and me and all other creatures that benefit all over the world.
So, as forests are cut down more and more of the sun's heat is trapped then in the ground everywhere. Also, less oxygen is made for everyone on earth to breathe as it is naturally converted from CO2 to oxygen and carbon by all plants. So as humans through burning fossil fuels create more CO2 and cut down more forests we are in the middle of a losing battle as far as CO2 goes. And as humans breed more cattle and goats and pigs to eat the methane they produce from feces creates water vapor in the upper atmosphere instead of ozone since methane is lighter than air. Since there is less ozone to protect humans from the suns damaging rays there is more and more skin cancer, especially where the ozone hole is worst around Australia and New Zealand, though there is skin cancer everywhere. I've had skin cancer on my nose for example, about 15 years ago now and had it removed that was caused from skiing, surfing, working in the sun and traveling and hiking and swimming all over the world.
So, all of us are suffering the effects of loss of ozone from CO2 and from Methane produced by animals humans raise for meat and by all animals that are still left in the wild and probably most of all by the methane 7 billion humans create with all their waste.
This summer, I feel has been a tipping point ecologically in many ways I believe. Even though parts of the Caribbean in the Atlantic Ocean were likely hotter than normal, the northern Pacific Ocean (from Hawaii north and over towards San Diego and north had water temperatures that were up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit colder than normal for those areas all summer. So as I thought about the causes for this I came up with the melting ice caps and the El Nino and the Northern Hemisphere Volcanoes that have spewed fine particles of dust and glass into the air that block some of the sun from hitting the ground as they circle the world in mostly the upper atmosphere.
So, one of the things that works against Global Climate Change taking us in hotter directions is volcanic eruptions which tend to reduce temperatures in that hemisphere for a few years depending upon how great an eruption and for how long and just how much dust and fine glass particles remain in the upper atmosphere as they tend to travel around in that hemisphere on the winds around the world.
For example, I lived in Mt. Shasta after the Mt. St. Helens eruption on my land with my family around 1980 or so when that happened. We got green, orange and purple sunsets which were mostly colors I had never seen in a sunset before for a couple of years after that eruption. Also when Pinatubo went off similar colors happened where I lived at sunset. So these strange colors sort of reminded one more of the Aurora Borealis than anything else at that time. And these colors were from the glass particles affecting the color of sunsets and at times the color of the air and sky during the day. Temperatures also seems cooler during the summers during this time as well.
So, as I woke up I was thinking how people could counteract the heating trends of earth over the long haul. One of the ideas I had heard of that made sense is that Black asphalt isn't a good idea. However, I was thinking that if a coating of silver or white that still allowed for good traction from tires was sprayed onto black surfaces the heat absorption problem could be modified. Also, if one painted black roofs lighter colors like Silver or white worldwide it also could reduce the heat of summer inside those buildings. Also, I suppose in snowier climates if you wanted to reduce your winter heating bills you could paint your roofs black to increase heat absorption as long as you didn't have really hot summers where you are.
Note: another idea I had for people who live remote enough to get away with this. One could cover their roofs with a large sheet of black plastic temporarily just for winter which would make snow slide off easier during the winter of a sloped roof and then if the weather is warm in the summer then remove the black plastic in spring or early summer when you don't need the extra heat from the black plastic. For most people in the U.S. this might not work but for those remote enough it would help with heating bills if one knew what they were doing.
Another problem the Earth is facing is that as the North Pole melts out completely or almost completely by September each year now, during these times the blue water absorbs much more heat from the sun than say Ice does. This exponentially tends to create situations where more and more ice melts out each year because the sun has so much more heating effect on blue water than it would on ice. On top of this methane trapped from animal carcasses and feces for thousands of years in the tundra of Siberia and Alaska is now starting to thaw and put millions of tons of new methane in the upper atmosphere as the planet warms slowly. So, in some ways things are completely out of the control of humans and are moving more so each and every day.
Humans are by building more and more cars and more and more power plants fired by coal and fossil fuels creating even more long term problems every day.
It is said that at most there is only 40 years of oil left in the ground presently on earth. However, that is being reduced daily because of the exponential rise in the use of fossil fuels by developing nations on earth. This is why so many developed nations like Europe and the U.S. are putting in so many off shore super wind generating systems. I just heard about a new wind system planned for 15 miles off of New Jersey all the way to Virginia of Super wind generating systems partly funded by Google.
So, very soon oil will just get more and more expensive (even though the price is artificially high by around 30 to 50 dollars per barrel right now worldwide).
The survival of the free world depends now on new sources of power. Without cheap new power sources I believe the free world might be over within 50 years. However, only within a free market system can things move fast enough to create the kinds of changes needed for the earth to survive what it is now facing so humans actually have a chance to survive long term what they are facing. Very soon everyone will realize this. I hope by then it is not too late.
Note: To cool the seas down some kind of reflector system would be needed. I suppose you could manufacture artificial glass particles that would mimic Volcanic dust and glass particles and drop them at high altitudes over the north pole during the spring and summer months. However, one would have to be aware what the upper wind currents would do with that artificially created dust and glass particles because it might affect the weather of some countries downwind. And if one dumped too many or too much glass fine particles into the upper atmosphere it could have unknown affects long term as well. However, this could possibly cause enough cooling to bring back ice into the Arctic over the years. If one could mathematically estimate the amount of dust and glass particles generated by all the volcanoes on earth in one year then dumping that amount over several months say between May and August of a year might cause more ice to stay intact in the polar regions if this was done on a yearly basis. Though it wouldn't be a permanent solution it could buy the whole world (in the northern hemisphere time) to find more permanent solutions to our climate change problems.
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