Study Shows Geoengineering Attempts Could Cause Catastrophic Climate Effects

The research adds to the mounting evidence that geoengineering is a false climate solution with dangerous results

A study published Friday found that a cloud engineering technique designed to cool parts of the western United States could inadvertently stoke heatwaves from North America to Europe, underscoring why many scientists reject geoengineering as a false climate solution.

The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, concludes that marine cloud brightening (MCB) — “a geoengineering proposal to cool atmospheric temperatures and reduce climate change impacts” — in the “remote mid-latitudes or proximate subtropics” of the northern Pacific Ocean — would decrease “the relative risk of dangerous summer heat exposure by 55% and 16%, respectively.”

However, the researchers found that regions including Africa’s Sahel, central North America, Europe, and northeastern Asia would “experience exacerbated heat stress and hotter summers with MCB than would otherwise occur under global warming.”