The latest edition of , my podcast with is now available. This week, Brian and I discuss why fewer people disapprove of Trump lately, how lag effects have insulated him from accountability, and whether Trump’s unique responsibility for the loss of abortion rights (and his status as a Florida resident) mean this issue will eventually catch up with him. Paid Politix subscribers also get an in-depth look at how public opinion on abortion has changed in the past two years, even if it hasn’t (yet) dragged Trump down.
Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) is a serious health hazard that causes respiratory problems when inhaled. It’s a major contributor to the smog that used blanket American cities and the acid rain that marred much of the east coast. Decades of regulation have been implemented to get this toxin out of the air we breathe and the water we drink, and they’ve largely succeeded The most recent effort to de-sulfurize our lives, though, was an attempt to reduce the amount of sulfur dioxide emissions in trans-Atlantic maritime shipping. We appear to have succeeded in doing that, but in doing so contributed to the alarming rise in the temperature of the Atlantic Ocean, because SO₂ isn’t just toxic — it also reflects solar radiation.
Sulfur pollution is a long-standing problem, so this is a well-understood dynamic. And all things considered, SO₂ pollution seems to be more harmful than global warming, so the effort to reduce it isn’t a mistake. But it is suggestive of an idea that’s been bouncing around for a long time now: putting SO₂ and other aerosols into the stratosphere to block solar radiation without anyone breathing in the toxins.
Would this really work?
My understanding from talking to people over the years is that it probably would. As in, if you had to make a do-or-die choice tomorrow, most scientists and engineers who’ve looked at it think that it probably would.
But there are a lot of known unknowns about the idea, which is based on abstract modeling and general chemistry knowledge rather than specific experiments. And that’s where this conversation starts to annoy me.
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