Exploring public concerns about geoengineering the climate

Campus Progress

Manage the symptoms or go after the root cause? In a way, those are the choices available to deal with climate change. If the task of weaning ourselves off fossil fuels (and reining in deforestation) is too unappealing, a potentially more palatable alternative is geoengineering—intentionally manipulating the climate system. With the large-scale removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere currently beyond our grasp, shading the planet with reflective aerosols might be the most effective tool in our kit.

That’s no free lunch, of course. Some aerosols have direct, negative effects on human health, and a hiccup in the system would induce drastic climatic changes. Aerosols cover up the warming effect of greenhouse gases, but they don’t stay in the atmosphere very long. Stop replenishing the aerosols and the planet could very quickly feel the full force of that “hidden” warming. The vulnerability of such a system to international disagreements, war, and even terrorist attacks is obvious.

If all this makes you a little nervous about the idea, you’re not alone. Geoengineering research has been controversial. A perspective in Nature Climate Change describes an effort to engage the public to understand common concerns ahead of one such research project in the UK—the Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (SPICE) project.