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Expensive-Field77 t1_iw07v3j wrote

It also means satellites in LEO would last longer?

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whenItouchthesky t1_ivzsrti wrote

Got it…. But does that mean that the more debris in the thermosphere there might be a positive change in global warming? Like, reflected solar energy, etc? I’m trying to be the consummate optimist…

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houtex727 t1_ivzxwcs wrote

I like your thought process, truly!

But the reality is even in very very LEO, the amount of actual space means it'd have to be a literal cloud of material up there to block enough solar energy. And that would actually be worse as while you're reflecting the energy, you're also creating a blanket and we make plenty enough heat down here already.

Your idea has merit, but the semi-better idea kicked around in that regard is to make a more 'permanent' cloud or such at LaGrange point 1, always in between the Sun and the Earth, permanently (until we decide to remove/reduce it) blocking the amount of solar energy to ease the warming issue. There's no additional blanket of material to keep energy in, so the Earth cools naturally over decades. Yes, decades.

But then, people would just use the opportunity to make even further ways to warm up the Earth, then we'd send more stuff to block sun, and it's then a runaway situation where we wind up actually causing an ice age...

Meaning at the end, we just should fix it right, today, on the 'ground' if you will, and not use tricks elsewhere we'll just screw it up with anyway because humans, amirite?

Also, astronomers won't like it, all that junk already gets in the way and they don't want it to be a thing (Starlink, OneWeb, etc), so there's that.

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whenItouchthesky t1_iw08ljy wrote

Excellent answer to my question. Sigh…. But thank you for the context.

Small consolation but at least it would just mean the extinction of humans and some rewriting of the book of biology in the way of neodarwinism.

A minor thing, really, when compared to massive cosmic extinction events of the past (and future).

We humans be but a minor bug in the universal scheme of things. Would that we realized we are the machines of our own destruction.

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Deazul t1_iw14y9c wrote

Kessler syndrome is closer than we think

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dontcareitsonlyreddi t1_iw0feen wrote

Someone needs to tell China and India this too , so they are on earth and contribute and climate change affects us all

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Falcon007_rb t1_iw0pvrf wrote

Sure thing buddy. Lemme tell them to clean up their space debris

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dontcareitsonlyreddi t1_iw0qmj4 wrote

No point in only blaming the US.

Climate change articles that do that always are a dog-whistle in anti-USA rhetoric

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Dangerous_Dac t1_iw20k0j wrote

I'm less concerned about the satellites and more concerned about our LITERAL ATMOSPHERE SHRINKING.

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