'Super Freakonomics' Advocates Hose-based Climate Solution

Here's an idea: let's cool the planet by spraying liquefied sulfur dioxide 18 miles into the air through a giant hose to mimic a volcanic eruption. The sulfur-dioxide particles floating about in the air would block sunlight, which would in turn cool the Earth's surface temperature. Done and done. Problem solved!

Or, wait, is that really such a good idea? Well, here's another one: let's just wait climate change out. If we just sit here and do nothing, we can avoid spending the money to fix it, and then maybe it will pass, like a migraine or a bout of indigestion.

These two ideas are — no joke — the ones being advocated by Stephen Dubner, a former New York Times writer and editor, and Steven Levitt, a University of Chicago economics professor, according to a review of their new book Super Freakonomics in the Las Vegas Business Press.

Prominent thinkers, including Stanford University's Ken Caldeira, whom the book quotes, and Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman have discredited the book's conclusions. The Washington Post's Ezra Klein takes issue with the authors' propensity to mangle statistics and make unacceptable assumptions. "The problem with Super Freakonomics is it prefers an interesting story to an accurate one," Klein writes.