On: NASA proposes a magnetic shield to protect Mars' a...

[M_Grey]

Who is this for? The kind of person who doesn't stop to consider how much energy it would take to run this hypothetical device, and what that energy/money/resources could do on Earth. "The common clay of the new West..."

[mirimir → M_Grey]

Yes, there is that. But it's also rather like off-site backup. Or at least, somewhat off-site.

Edit: Anyway, I do agree that the priority ought to be displacing carbon emissions, and removing CO2 from the atmosphere.

[M_Grey → mirimir]

Yes, but if you have zettawatts of energy to pump into a space station, you probably don't need to be doing something so crude.

[mirimir → M_Grey]

They'd be using local PV for the field. With PV at that scale, they'd need to beam it back to Earth. And that could be quite the weapon system.

[M_Grey → mirimir]

Sure, but you'd be talking about a civilization that could afford to build it, and operate it... a civilization so advanced that they can afford more than double our current energy production just to electromagnetically shield Mars.

[mirimir → M_Grey]

I saw estimates here that 10% of current US energy use would suffice to start. And this would be entirely automated, using methods not that different from JWST, except in scale. And arguably, it's less complicated than beaming energy back to Earth. But still, those could be parallel efforts.