Geoengineering Has A Major Problem
It turns out that playing God isn’t all it is cracked up to be.
We are rapidly approaching a self-made climate disaster and are only now beginning to implement the crucial technology required to avert it. There are already calls for us to prepare to exceed our target of limiting global warming to only 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050, as it seems we are bound to fall short of this goal. This has caused many to suggest that we may soon need to turn to geoengineering to halt climate change before it becomes too horrific. However, a new study has suggested this may be a disastrous misstep.
Before we dive into this study, we first need a quick recap of what geoengineering is. Geoengineering refers to a group of technologies that reduce the amount of solar energy either entering or being trapped by our atmosphere. This can, in turn, cool the climate and counteract the greenhouse effect from the increased carbon dioxide levels we have created.
There are now a myriad of geoengineering technologies, such as space shields, cirrus cloud thinning, stratospheric aerosol injection, marine cloud brightening, and surface albedo modification. But while all of these technologies work in theory, none are considered refined enough to actually be used in practice. Furthermore, they are all extremely expensive to…
