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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com
Speaker 1: where smart happens. Hi, I'm Marshall Brain with today's question,
Speaker 1: what is a stratospheric aerosol? Scientific evidence indicates that the
Speaker 1: Earth is getting warmer because greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
Speaker 1: trap more of the Sun's heat. For example, human consumption
Speaker 1: of fossil fuels releases billions of pounds of carbon dioxide
Speaker 1: gas into the atmosphere every day, and a wide variety
Speaker 1: of natural processes create methane. Both of these gases trap heat.
Speaker 1: If we could somehow block or reflect away some of
Speaker 1: the unlight reaching Earth, it would cool the planet down.
Speaker 1: One way to block or reflect sunlight is to load
Speaker 1: the stratosphere with particles or sulfur chemicals like sulfur dioxide.
Speaker 1: We know this would work because large volcanic eruptions, which
Speaker 1: inject dust and sulfur into the stratosphere have a noticeable
Speaker 1: cooling effect on the entire planet. This stratosphere starts about
Speaker 1: six miles above the Earth's surface, and commercial jets regularly
Speaker 1: fly at this altitude, So one idea that's been proposed
Speaker 1: is to use jets or high altitude balloons to create
Speaker 1: man made reflective stratospheric aerosols. We could release large quantities
Speaker 1: of sulfur dioxide or hydrogen sulfide gas directly into the stratosphere.
Speaker 1: There are three advantages to this approach. First, we know
Speaker 1: it would work. Volcanoes show us the way. Second, we
Speaker 1: could get started very quickly. There are no technological hurdles. Third,
Speaker 1: it's easy to turn it off. We simply stop injecting
Speaker 1: the chemicals and in a year or two they'll dissipate naturally.
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Speaker 1: If so, please send me an email at podcast at
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