Think of solar geoengineering as our last shot as a planet. If our efforts to slow climate change are unsuccessful and if the worst case scenarios play out – this is what world leaders will turn to. It will have us spraying highly reflective material, such as sulfur, into the stratosphere in order to deflect sunlight and cool the planet. Essentially, we’ll be finding a way to cool the sun for the earth.
Solar geoengineering has been inspired by the effect that volcanoes have on the world. When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1992, the world got measurably cooler for a year or two. Scientists are exploring how we could artificially and permanently replicate that effect. Those same scientists hope their work will never be used.
Earlier this year more than 350 scientists signed a letter urging an absolute ban on solar geoengineering. Central to their concern, is the risk of one country acting unilaterally and affecting every other country in the process. Without an international non-use agreement, a country like the United States or China may feel domestic political pressure to use this technology because of how climate change has affected their domestic environment.
This article from the New Yorker looks at the world of solar geoengineers and the concerns they have about their work ever being used.
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