Climate models suggest that a possible scheme to cool the western US by making clouds brighter could work under current conditions, but may have severe unintended consequences in a future scenario
A cloud-modifying technique could help cool the western US, but it would eventually lose its effectiveness and, by 2050, could end up driving heatwaves around the planet towards Europe, according to a modelling study., which aims to reflect more sunlight away from Earth’s surface by seeding the lower atmosphere with sea salt particles to form brighter marine stratocumulus clouds..
They also modelled the impact MCB would have in 2050, in a predicted scenario where global warming reaches 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures. Under these conditions, the same MCB programme was ineffective and instead dramatically warmed almost the entirety of Europe, except the Iberian peninsula. Ricke says the modelled temperature increase was especially large in Scandinavia, Central Europe and Eastern Europe.
“Lock-in is a major concern people have about geoengineering approaches in general because there will be opportunity costs associated with pursuing these approaches,” says Ricke.