Page 25 - James Rodger Fleming - Fixing the sky

overcast, azure, copper, even milky white. Fog or cloud modification involves fix-
ing the sky. Sky gods and goddesses, sky-shades, and sky-fliers (the overly ambi-
tious) have all played their roles in this seemingly limitless and often extrava-
gantly fanciful history.
A “fix” is a predicament, difficulty, dilemma, or a “tight place.” It refers to a
heroic intervention to help the hopeless and make things right again. It can also
be a certified position at sea, in the air, or on the trading floor; a dose of nar-
cotics for an addict; or an illegal bribe or illicit arrangement. A fix is a measure
undertaken to resolve a problem, an easy remedy, sometimes known as a “quick
fix,” which connotes an expedient but temporary solution that fails to address
underlying problems. It can be a “tech fix” that emphasizes the engineering aspect
rather than the social dimensions of an issue. Something “fixed” is not changing
or vacillating; it possesses stability and consistency, even if it is a steady, concen-
trated, unwavering, or mesmerizing fixed gaze. When the chemist Joseph Black
discovered what we now call carbon dioxide, he called it “fixed air” because of its
stable properties—ironic now that this compound is the volatile core of all envi-
ronmental discussion. Plants are good at fixing carbon into their tissues through
photosynthesis, but we have yet to learn how to capture, fix, and sequester car-
bon dioxide underground or in ocean trenches. Sporting events and elections can
be “fixed” by illegal means, bulls by legal means; the unattached can be “fixed up”
with likely partners.
In 1966 physicist Alvin Weinberg coined the term “technological fix.” Since
then, it has come to connote simplistic or stopgap remedies to complex problems,
partial solutions that may generate more problems than they solve. Placing more
faith in technology than in human nature, Weinberg offered engineering as an
alternative to conservation or restraint. We face this dilemma with technologi-
cal fixes for global warming, although those who propose such ideas are quick to
say that they are only buying time until more reasonable forms of mitigation and
adaptation can take effect. 13
In a practical way, humans have long practiced a form of climate control in
their technologies of clothing and shelter. By controlling the heat and moisture
budgets within a centimeter of the skin surface, humans can function in even
the harshest weather conditions. Mountain climbers, polar explorers, even the
French Foreign Legion represent extreme examples of what we all do—clothe
ourselves according to expected environmental conditions.
Controlling the heat budget (and to some extent the moisture budget) within
small, enclosed spaces allows humans to live, work, and play in relative comfort
and safety in most weather conditions and climate zones. As Ralph Waldo Emer-

8 | introduCtion