Glass Sky Read Online Free

stepped into a windowless room lit by vertical strips of softly glowing Illuminex. Centered on each wall, an enormous display shifted through forest scenes. A large black man with a shaved head sat at the table, talking on his omni. He waved at Tania to sit, ended his call and offered a fist over the table in greeting. “Dr. Tania Black, I presume.” His voice had deep resonances, like an actor’s. “I’m Tetabo Molari.”
    “Tania Black.” I recognize him . His square, strong face was hidden under years of inactivity, like a boxer embedded in dough. The face snapped to a memory. Of course. Molari Industries. One of the world companies. They produced everything from solar panels to satellites. Interesting.
    “Do you need a coffee? Or a snack?”
    “Need? Yes. That’s the right word. I’d love a coffee please.”
    “Coffee and snacks for two,” Molari told his omni. “I’m sure you’ve got a lot of questions, Doctor Black.”
    “Tania. Please.”
    Molari unrolled his scroll and snapped it to full width, exposing a grid of image thumbnails. “Normally my audience is less technical. I hope you’ll bear with my presentation, Tania. I’ll start with a question I’m sure you know the answer to already. What would happen to temperatures if we stopped all CO2 emissions today? Assuming no sulfuring.”
    “We’d still have a disaster,” said Tania. “CO2 acts like an insulating blanket. But we’ve added so much insulation, so quickly, that temperatures haven’t reached the new equilibrium point yet. They’ll keep rising for decades. And for everything to finish melting could take centuries, triggering more feedback loops.” She shook her head. “Methane will melt out of the permafrost. The thermohaline circulation will be disrupted. Sea levels will eventually rise between 50 and 150 meters.”
    “Hence our need for geoengineering,” said Molari. “We have to force down the temperature until Earth absorbs our extra CO2. Possibly for hundreds of years.” Molari flicked an image to a wall display. It showed one of the sulfur rockets that had painted the skies silver for nearly a decade. “Sulfuring was our first attempt. Brighten the planet and reflect more sunlight into space. But as we’ve seen, it’s too blunt a tool.”
    The door opened and a four-wheeled servo the size of a kitchen recycler rolled into the room. Molari lifted the lid and removed two coffee cups, filling them under the servo’s spigot. He passed one to Tania, dipped a ginger biscuit into his, and continued.
    “We need a long-term solution. One that’s more refined than sulfuring.” He paused for a bite. “My company,” – another pause – “has that solution.”
    Tania leaned forward. Tell me! Tell me!
    Molari picked up his coffee cup and took a long sip, savoring it. He seemed to contemplate another, suspense-prolonging sip. Then he continued, slow and emphatic.
    “Instead of reflecting sunlight by brightening the atmosphere with sulfur, we can redirect sunlight in space. Stop it from ever reaching Earth. Molari enterprises can place an array of 3000 disks at L1, the point where the earth and sun’s gravities balance. Each disk will cover thousands of square miles. Collectively, the disks will cool Earth by reducing incoming sunlight, while limiting the side-effects that have made the sulfur releases so problematic.”
    Tania sagged into her seat. Is this what I got my hopes up for? Molari raised an eyebrow. “A comment, Tania?”
    “This idea is older than I am,” said Tania, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice. “It doesn’t matter whether you block sunlight or reflect it. The physics are similar. We get massive weather disruptions.”
    Molari grinned. “What causes these disruptions?” he prompted.
    She straightened. He’s obviously thought of this. OK. I’ll bite.
    “The sun is most intense in the tropics,” she began. “So blocking sunlight has the biggest effect there. CO2 on the other