The moral hazard of solar geoengineering (rerun)
Hey smarties! We’re on a break for the holidays and revisiting some of our top episodes from 2022. We can’t do this show without you and we still need your support. If you can, donate today to keep independent journalism going strong into 2023 and beyond. Give now to support Make Me Smart. Thank you so much for your generosity, happy holidays and we’ll see you in the new year.
As the threat of climate change grows, expect to hear more about solar geoengineering.
It came up during our recent episode with sci-fi author Neal Stephenson, and it involves spraying tiny particles into the stratosphere to deflect the sun’s rays away from the Earth and cool the planet.
“It’s a pretty old idea and it has run into such opposition, in terms of research, that we have yet to have any rigorous tests of whether it is even, you know, remotely possible,” said Elizabeth Kolbert, a climate journalist and author of “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future.”
Critics still believe the risks outweigh potential benefits, but that hasn’t stopped others from supporting the idea as a potential solution to our climate woes.
On the show today, the promise and peril of solar geoengineering.
In the News Fix, we’ll discuss a historic settlement between Sandy Hook families and gun manufacturer Remington Arms. Also, we’ll explain why billionaire philanthropists are a social policy issue.
Then we’ll hear from listeners about last week’s episode on the NFL racial discrimination lawsuit, and we’ll have an answer to the Make Me Smart question that will teach you something about weather forecasting!
Here’s everything we talked about today:
- “Should We Block the Sun? Scientists Say the Time Has Come to Study It” from The New York Times
- “Why a landmark experiment into dimming the sun got canceled” from Grist
- Plaintiffs say they have a settlement agreement with the maker of the gun used in the Sandy Hook shooting from Connecticut Public Radio
- “U.S. Producer-Price Inflation Stays Hot, Reinforcing Fed’s Plan to Start Raising Rates” from Bloomberg
- “Elon Musk Gave $5.7 Billion of Tesla Shares to Charity Last Year” from The Wall Street Journal
- How to Become a National Weather Service Storm Spotter
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