Streaming TV shows and movies directly to your home is a breeze with Netflix. As a Netflix member, you can instantly watch TV and movies on your PC, Mac, mobile device, or television. Get a free thirty day trial membership. Go to Netflix dot com slash stuff and sign up today. Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com where smart happens. Hi, I'm Marshall Brain with today's question,
what is a stratospheric aerosol? Scientific evidence indicates that the Earth is getting warmer because greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trap more of the Sun's heat. For example, human consumption of fossil fuels releases billions of pounds of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere every day, and a wide variety of natural processes create methane. Both of these gases trap heat. If we could somehow block or reflect away some of the unlight reaching Earth, it would cool the planet down.
One way to block or reflect sunlight is to load the stratosphere with particles or sulfur chemicals like sulfur dioxide. We know this would work because large volcanic eruptions, which inject dust and sulfur into the stratosphere have a noticeable cooling effect on the entire planet. This stratosphere starts about six miles above the Earth's surface, and commercial jets regularly fly at this altitude, So one idea that's been proposed is to use jets or high altitude balloons to create
man made reflective stratospheric aerosols. We could release large quantities of sulfur dioxide or hydrogen sulfide gas directly into the stratosphere. There are three advantages to this approach. First, we know it would work. Volcanoes show us the way. Second, we could get started very quickly. There are no technological hurdles. Third, it's easy to turn it off. We simply stop injecting the chemicals and in a year or two they'll dissipate naturally.
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