Manjushri

Golden Dome is a pipe dream . It simply not technologically feasible to protect the entire country from incoming missiles.

You probably have to shoot down missiles during the boost phase, when the warheads are still attached. For SDI, the U.S. was dealing with Soviet liquid-fueled missiles that would boost, or burn, for about four minutes. Well, modern ones burn for less than three—that’s a whole minute that you no longer have. This is actually much worse than it sounds because you’re probably unable to shoot for the first minute or so. Even with modern detectors [that are] much better than [those] we had in the 1980s, you may not see the missile until it rises above the clouds. And once it does, your sensors, your computers, still have to say, “Aha! That is a missile!” And then you have to ensure that you’re not shooting down some ordinary space launch—so the system says, “I see a missile. May I shoot at it, please?” And someone or something has to give the go-ahead. So let’s just say you’ll have a good minute to shoot it down; this means your space-based interceptor has to be right there, ready to go, right? But by the time you’re getting permission to shoot, the satellite that was overhead to do that is now too far away, and so the next satellite has to be coming there. This scales up really, really fast.

And that’s just one of many issues. I recommend reading the whole piece. It really shows what a joke this whole concept is.

I suspect that this is really just another way for Trump to hand billions of dollars to his buddies. Just watch. When some company is given a contract for this it’ll be a brand new company that just happens to be owned by former republican operatives or politicians. Needless to say, the company will never be required to produce anything either. They’ll just pay out all those billions to consultants and other newly created companies owned by other GOP operatives.

About 40% of methane emissions come from natural sources. But scientists are concerned that global heating is leading to more methane production in wetlands, another potential feedback loop. The rest comes from fossil fuel exploitation; livestock such as cattle; rotting waste in landfills; and rice paddies. Human-caused nitrous oxide emissions include those from overuse of fertiliser by farmers and some industrial processes.

Add on to this all the new methane seeps they’re discovering on the antarctic sea floor. Personally I think this will turn out to be a major tipping point. There is believed to be a lot of methane down there and methane, while short lived in the atmosphere, is a far more portent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.