My personal favorite was the idea of "space mirrors." The idea originates from University of Arizona professor Roger Ange, who is an expert on astronomical optics. The underlying thought is to increase Earth's reflectivity, reducing the heat absorbed, which would counteract global warming. It would approximately take 16 trillion reflectors, covering 1.8 million square miles to bounce back about 2% of the total solar radiaton reaching Earth. The project would cost around $5 trillion (around 41% of the total U.S. national debt). The hardest part is to get this huge amount of mirrors to space, but with electromagnetic coil guns this could be easily (?) solved. Using the same thought process, sulfur containing gas could be injected into the atmosphere to increase reflectivity. This could be achieved by man-made volcanoes. The huge cost for space mirrors, and the possiblity of rampant ocean acidification with the extra sulfate in the atmosphere would make these projects unlikely candidates.

A vegan-approved method could be bio-engineering cows. With livestock flatulating 40% of global methane emissions, this could be a real winner. A study has found that putting garlic into livestock feed may reduce the methane producing bacteria. Some people might prefer their steak without a built-in garlic flavor, so Australian scientist found another way. The lining of a kangaroo's stomach contains a special bacteria that (if successfully isolated and injected into other livestock) could significantly reduce methane emissions.

Now these ideas may seem far-fetched, but the kind of unorthodox thinking that these scientists are doing is absolutely neccessary in order to deal with such a large-magnitude and pressing problem as global warming. China is already seeding clouds to induce precipitation, the only question is when these geo-engineering efforts going to turn into more serious and larger scale, not whether they are going to happen or not.

Share your crazy ideas/opinions of geo-engineering with me.