Candidate Andrew Yang goes there, suggests 'space mirrors' as a last resort to fight climate crisis

Brett T. | 6:26 PM on September 04, 2019

As Twitchy reported, CNN kicked off its 7-hour town hall on climate change with 10 Democratic presidential candidates by asking Julian Castro what his administration would do to “give a voice to environmental racism.”

Grist has put together a fun Bingo card to pass the time during CNN’s marathon event, and we’re happy to report that Andrew Yang’s suggestion of launching giant space mirrors to reflect the sun away from the planet got a mention during his segment.

We’re only an hour into the #ClimateTownHall and this @grist Bingo card is already filling up! Did I miss anything? pic.twitter.com/tDYrQ6V1gu

— Teresa Chin (@TeresaLChin) September 4, 2019

Andrew Yang said space mirrors! Put it on the board. https://t.co/QSik0JjAqk

— Zoya Teirstein (@zteirstein) September 4, 2019

It’s there, third down in the “O” column. Cross that baby off!

In case you hadn’t heard, space mirrors are just one of Yang’s suggestions to stem the climate crisis, along with moving people to higher ground.

Andrew Yang’s plan to fight climate change features:

• A carbon tax
• Nuclear fusion power
• Space mirrors, if need be https://t.co/BuDdKEszYd

— Vox (@voxdotcom) September 4, 2019

Vox reports:

Most plans to deal with climate change don’t feature the plank “Move our people to higher ground,” but most plans to deal with climate change don’t come from Andrew Yang, the entrepreneur and writer turned dark horse presidential candidate.

…

Directly capturing carbon dioxide and planting trees are not very controversial in climate policy circles; the issue, with the former especially, is cost, not wisdom. “Space mirrors,” suffice it to say, are much more controversial, not least because they’re basically impossible to test. So too with aerosol scattering and ocean seeding (Kelsey Piper wrote a piece about one such attempt at the latter).

Yang proposes spending $800 million on geoengineering research and holding a global summit to coordinate work on the issue. But he’s clear that solar mirrors, for instance, should only “be investigated as a last resort,” and that more research is needed before deciding to actually engage in one of these courses of action.