Weather control as a market for space?

Richard Brooks wrote:

>Consider how much northern cities (in the northern hemisphere) spend on
>snow plows in the winter. I consider it probable that orbital mirrors
>could replace some if not all of the snow plows.
>Not to mention the market for snow plows. And snow shovels.
>

Du to the low orbit the mirrors have to be in, time of lighting/warming
will probably be limited
to morning and evening. Melting the snow and then letting it freeze over
could turn out to
be worse than just plowing it.

>I'm not sure, but Environmental Impact Statements might be a problem
>
>As far as I'm concerned, winter sports are a waste. But many people like
>them. If we warm up Buffalo New York to the point where they don't need
>any other snow removal, how far outside the city will be affected? Will
>winter sports be confined to a few reservations in sparsely populated areas?
>
>Too, what would be the impact of keeping winter excluded from more of our
>planet? Insect pests are worse where freezing doesn't keep their numbers down.
>
>Longer growing seasons would improve crop yields. I was raised on a farm
>just south of Michigan. Around here, you get two cuttings of
>alfalfa hay a year. Would a longer year mean several more?
>
>Weather control due to orbital mirrors would be a great help. But we could
>see a lot of new problems.
>
No doubt the overall sun energy to earth must not be increased too much.
As a first guess I would say less than one per cent should be ok. That
means any weather control would be more surgical than powerful. That's
why I emphasis the question of tornado control. There might be a way to
influence chaotic weather events by applying not too much energy at the
right place and moment.

To heat up northern countries or Antarctica, higher orbits would do too.
But the environmental changes would be drastic. Maybe when one of the
worst case scenarios (polar ice melted away or new ice age setting in)
happens, this might be something to consider. But not for now.

Note also that to increase solar input to earth by one percent, you need
about one million square kilometers of orbital mirrors.
So let's start small and refrain from re-modeling overall world climate.