Costly Geoengineering Schemes Could Stall Real Solutions

Because the fossil fuel industry and its supporters have done everything they can to stall needed solutions to the climate crisis, some people say we must now engineer our way out of the mess we created. Many are promoting schemes that block sunlight from reaching Earth, reflect more of it back into space or absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

Have we really reached that point? Would blocking sunlight by putting reflective particles such as toxic sulphur dioxide into the upper atmosphere cool the planet? Or spraying seawater into the lower atmosphere to increase reflective cloud cover? How about thickening ice with pumped seawater? Building massive machines to suck carbon from the air?

What are the risks? What would be the unintended consequences?

A United Kingdom government office, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, is spending £56.8 million (about C$106 million) to explore some of these “climate cooling approaches” or “climate interventions.”