this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
173 points (100.0% liked)
196
16503 readers
3200 users here now
Be sure to follow the rule before you head out.
Rule: You must post before you leave.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
that seems thermodynamically dubious
To be fair, I think the idea would be to change the albedo of Earth so that more sunlight is reflected back into space. But it would need to reflect more light/heat than it produces in waste heat for the refrigeration, who wants to do the math?
Not just the waste heat from the refrigeration, but also the warming from the carbon emitted running the refrigeration and running the ships, plus the waste heat from desalinating the water.
The idea is from an architectural design contest, not any kind of actual climate scientist. ABC news went and asked an actual climate scientist about it:
“It’s like trying to save the sand castle you built at the beach using a dixie cup as the tide comes in,” Michael Mann, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Penn State, said of the iceberg-making proposal.