If we can’t control rising global temperatures by drastically cutting carbon emissions, could something called geo-engineering be a way to cool the planet?
In what is already a £103bn industry, scientists around the world, including in the UK, are researching geo-engineering - ways of manipulating the climate to tackle global warming.
“We need to start to think about other things that we can do in order to limit any further warming,” says Professor Liz Bentley, chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society. “That’s where geo-engineering starts to become an interesting discussion.” Modelling has shown that if you were to spray a large area - around 4% of the ocean - near the equator and brighten clouds, the combination of more cloud and consequently a lower sea surface temperature beneath it could have worldwide impacts.
While there is focus on using marine cloud brightening to offset global temperature rise, some see an opportunity to use it on a much smaller scale. Millions of tonnes of sulphur dioxide would need to be injected to have any impact. For example, during the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, the resulting half a degree of global cooling was the result of about 15 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide injected into the stratosphere.
“The regional impacts are very much unknown,” Prof Bentley said. ”We may be able to mitigate global average temperature , but we may actually make things worse in certain regions of the world”.This brings us to fundamental questions about the credibility and risks involved in this kind of intervention. In 2022, hundreds of scientists signed an open letter calling for a global non-use agreement on solar radiation management.
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