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Rich asked:
Building a space platform between the Earth and the sun to control the light that reaches the planet. A “polarized lens” for the globe. Could this improve what energy is captured by greenhouse gases? Could focusing the energy towards the colder extremities of the planet make them habitable/farmable? Could it be used in a focused offensive manner?
Bill Christensen answered:
In his 1953 novel Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke describes how the Overlords discipline a rogue nation. The sun goes out over their country.
“Somehow, out in space, the light of the sun had been polarized by two crossed fields so that no radiation could pass”. Read more at sunlight blocker.
Astrophysicist and sf author Gregory Benford formally proposed placing a giant Fresnel lens in orbit to reduce sunlight. See Reduce Global Warming by Blocking Sunlight.
The related problem of sea level rise was addressed in the 1987 story Fiasco by Stanislaw Lem, in which a planet’s inhabitants shot vast quantities of ice into orbit, shading the planet and lowering sea level. See Space Ring Latest Implausible Warming Solution.
Focusing the sun’s energy in a particular area was used in a 1991 Niven/Pournelle/Flynn novel called Fallen Angels; see Spotlight of Heat from that novel.
In his 1970 novel Ringworld, Larry Niven’s puppeteers solve the problem of excessive planetary heat by moving their home planet further from its sun. See Kemplerer (Klemperer) Rosette.
There has been some speculation about Geoengineering the Atmosphere for Climate Change. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle speculated that a planet’s natural vulcanism could be exploited; see Atmosphere Control.
19th century science fiction writers thought about global climate. In A Journey In Other Worlds, by John Jacob Astor IV, straightening the earth’s axis was suggested, and a method proposed. See Global Climate Control.
A similar idea can be found in Jule’s Verne’s 1889 novel The Purchase of the North Pole; see Straightening the Earth’s Poles.