Curbing global warming by shading Earth from the sun could be quick and cheap but also "irrational and irresponsible" without also cutting emissions and capturing carbon, says a report on geoengineering by the US National Academies.Damned if you do, damned if you don't. You'd better just sit back and let your moral betters figure it all out.
In theory, making Earth more reflective to the sun's rays --“ called albedo modification -- could be done relatively easily with existing technology, says the report. In 1991, emissions of just 20 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines reduced global temperatures by 0.3°C for three years. A similar human exercise to curb the warming from a doubling of carbon dioxide concentrations in the air would be "at least an order of magnitude less than the cost of decarbonising the world's economy", the report says.
What did they just say?
But sending mirrors into space or putting sulphur dioxide in the stratosphere could have "unanticipated, unmanageable and regrettable consequences" on the global climate, it says. Other impacts of carbon emissions, such as ocean acidification, would continue and if the techniques were ever stopped, rapidly soaring temperatures could have cataclysmic consequences.
So don't stop. Cheez, I have to come up with everything around here...
"Ideas to lessen the amount of energy absorbed from the sun should not be considered for deployment," says the president of the National Academy of Sciences. Nonetheless, the authors conclude that the techniques should be researched – not least so the world could respond if a climate vigilante were to carry out "an unsanctioned act of albedo modification".
Climate vigilantes? How is that different from Michael Mann?