An anonymous reader writes: So, volcanos like Pinitubo and St Helens are thought to have lowered global temperatures. Global warming, is widely publicized as a Bad Thing (dont want that debate here). So, assuming for the moment both are the case:
a) Any ideas on how we might efficiently mimic a volcano and get the same particles or gases into the upper atmosphere?
Should we build the worlds biggest shotgun and point it at the sky? Should we nuke some small, inoffensive country for the nuclear winter effects? (j/k) Should we just try to create a ring of thermal updrafts to make a "chimney" tube, and then inside that tube, try to have some kind of super-thermal updraft? Even if we have to find natural geothermal to power it (ie: bulldoze off the top of a volcano, to expose the hot part), would that actually reach the upper atmosphere? Should we be like springfield and build a protective layer of industrial pollution? Is it cheaper and easier to find a near-earth asteroid, like the one due in the 2030s, and convince it to crash into the earth? (preferably somewhere not in my backyard)
for bonus points:
b) does anyone know the approximate scale of gases/particles that a volcano like Pinitubu releases, compared to some kind of estimate of the industrial release of pollution or CO2, or even compared to cows "releasing" methane?
