Fighting Climate Change: Punchline

"I can't believe that the extra thick layer of pollution that I've actually picketed against is what burned up the comet." - Lisa Simpson

Lisa's hilarious words come after the Simpsonian world is saved from destruction. This was the very first thing I thought of when I read this article at CNN.com. For those who do not use tabbed browsing, the article states that air pollution may be the key to keeping the world cool during global warming.

The idea was put forward at the conference in Nairobi by "prominent scientists" including a Nobel Prize winner who is "not enthusiastic about it".

The article points out the period of cooling which the earth experienced after the eruption of Pinatubo in the Philippines. This page (at the bottom) lists a number of volcanoes which have had startling "haze effects", the same very effects that polluting the sky would have.

The article also brought to mind the song that Ned Flanders sang while waiting for death by the comet:

When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother, what will I be
Will I be pretty, will I be rich
Here's what she said to me.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.