It's time to talk about geoengineering ...
Do we really want to play dice with our planet?
Reflecting 1% of the sunlight that Earth currently absorbs may be enough to counteract all the warming caused by the increase in CO2 above preindustrial levels … however these different mechanisms affect the climate in very different ways. Even if an increase in global mean temperature were fully compensated … interventions could lead to a variety of changes in regional- scale temperature, precipitation patterns, and other impacts, effects that are at present poorly understood and difficult to predict … our ability to estimate climate responses and the downstream effect of those responses is currently climate responses and the downstream effect of those responses is currently very limited.
Source: Reflecting Sunlight | US National Academy of Sciences, June 2021. This report recommended that research should be undertaken into solar geoengineering for mitigating climate change. Others disagree, sometime vehemently.
Also: Can pumping chemicals into the ocean help stop global heating? Olive Heffernan in the Guardian, 10 March 2026
Originally posted in a page. Category: discussion topic tags geoengineering.
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