As if things were dire enough,  a new study being put out by the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory says that we could just start shading the Earth as a way to deal with Global Warming.

From Environmental News Network:

“In an effort combat climate change, scientists are researching ways to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the earth. The reasoning behind the study is that these temporary sunlight reduction methods have the potential to reduce temperatures and therefore reduce warming.”

The article later explains, “But how would scientists reduce the amount of sunlight? Could we construct a giant earth umbrella, or concoct some type global sunscreen? The researchers are contemplating shading the earth from the sun’s heat by either brightening clouds, mimicking the atmospheric cooling from volcanic eruptions or putting mirrors in space.”

There are plenty of current reasons to be tearing this system down.  But glimpses of possible futures like these can help add some urgency to those feelings.  Who knows what will happen to life on this planet if those researches figure out a way to “brighten the clouds”, or put mirrors in space.  Sadly this Culture does not have a great track record of thinking about the ramifications of plans for us or for anything else on this planet.