Stop Global Warming With Giant Fresnel Lens
Posted on April 12, 2005
Gregory Benford, a science fiction author and professor of plasma physics and astrophysics at the University of California, has introduced a plan to stop global warming. Benford and many other scientists believe something has to be done to stop global warming before it reaches a catastrophic no-turning-back point.
Gregory Benford's idea is to build a concave Fresnel Lens 1000 kilometres across but only a few millimetres thick at the L1 stable orbital point between us and the Sun. A Kuro5shin report says this would slightly diffuse the light from the sun and cool us down enough to balance out the warming effect caused by global warming gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane.
That sounds interesting, but what will it cost? Kuro5shin says it will cost at least $20 billion.
Dr Benford, while doing most of the work himself, has exploited his friends at NASA to confirm that the engineering is viable, and the results were astounding: The whole project could be achieved with today's technology at a cost of $10 billion US dollars up-front, and another ten for maintenance over the decades of designed lifespan.
In addition to the costs and the present problem of trying to get the world to unite on something there is also the potential problem that it would give polluting companies and countries an excuse to continue or even increase their current levels of pollution. And this is if Benford's plan would even work.
