Global catastrophic risks / space weather: Fund the researchers of this paper to work more on estimating the probability and economic losses of solar flares and work on a potential mitigation strategy to protect earth by setting up a magnetic shield to deflect solar flares.
This is an intriguing concept to deflect solar flares, but it looks like it would cost around $100 billion. Hardening the system against solar storms and electromagnetic pulses from high altitude nuclear weapon detonations would also cost a similar order of magnitude. Preventing the damage would be the best outcome, but it turns out we can protect against most of the damage by figuring out better ways to adapt, and this may only cost around $100 million. ALLFED is also working on this, and I plan to analyze the cost-effectiveness quantitatively soon.
This is an intriguing concept to deflect solar flares, but it looks like it would cost around $100 billion. Hardening the system against solar storms and electromagnetic pulses from high altitude nuclear weapon detonations would also cost a similar order of magnitude. Preventing the damage would be the best outcome, but it turns out we can protect against most of the damage by figuring out better ways to adapt, and this may only cost around $100 million. ALLFED is also working on this, and I plan to analyze the cost-effectiveness quantitatively soon.