Will a Giant Mirrored Force Field Save the Planet From Global Warming?

Despite obstacles, including an estimated $350 trillion price tag, a University of Arizona astronomer wants to save the earth from global warming by firing trillions of mirrors ito the stratosphere to deflect the sun’s rays. It’s so crazy it just might work.

The Telegraph reports that Dr. Roger Angel is developing a huge cannon with a barrel of 0.6 miles across, which scientists can use to shoot these mirrors one million miles up into space, thereby forming a 100,000 square mile “sun shade,” that the earth can then wear like a giant pair of Ray Bans.

Angel has already secured money from NASA for a pilot project, which he thinks can launch in 20 or 30 years—just in time to rescue the earth from certain doom. “What we have developed is certainly effective, and a method guaranteed to work,” he told the Telegraph.

Angel, who pioneers solar energy, is also developing cheaper methods of making the lenses. In the meantime, researchers at the University of Victoria, Canada, are testing the sun shield theory by using computer simulations of the project.

This comes on the same day that George Will refutes global warming in the Washington Post. Where do you stand? Is global warming a joke or a threat? To hear more about Dr. Angel’s sun shield theory, tune into Ways to Save the Planet on the Discovery Channel at 7pm on Sunday. And send Big Think your alternative theories for how to save the planet.