As the dangers of climate change continue to grow, so has interest in geoengineering – deliberate tinkering with the earth’s climate system. In particular, stratospheric solar geoengineering – releasing aerosols into the stratosphere to reduce the amount of heat from the sun reaching the Earth – is attracting increasing interest. Scientists at Harvard, Cornell, Colorado State, Princeton, and the University of Chicago are all researching the topic.
Actually doing it on a scale that matters is fraught with peril from unintended consequences of disrupting the delicate interactions between the Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, land, and sea ice.
Meanwhile, a tiny start-up company in Silicon Valley has raised more than a million dollars in venture capital and is busy releasing balloons full of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere in the name of combatting global warming. Furthermore, they are selling so-called “cooling credits” to customers who want to offset their personal carbon emissions.
The aerosol being released is on such a small scale that it can’t possibly have a meaningful effect on temperatures. There really isn’t scientific analysis guiding or accompanying the work.
There are no laws prohibiting the dispersal of small amounts of sulfur dioxide in California. Even if there were, these people could go offshore or elsewhere to do their work. But this renegade geoengineering highlights a serious issue; namely, that there doesn’t have to be scientific, political, or any other kind of consensus for someone to undertake a potentially catastrophic attempt to alter the climate. It’s a real worry.
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Silicon Valley Renegades Pollute the Sky to Save the Planet
Photo, posted September 24, 2006, courtesy of Doc Searls via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio