Future Perfect podcast: geoengineering to tackle global warming

Nature has a method of cooling the planet

Volcanic eruptions have, historically, caused sudden (but temporary) changes to global climate. The sulfur particles they shoot in the atmosphere reflect the sunlight back to the sun. The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines caused by Northern Hemisphere temperatures of about 0.6 degrees Celsius; for comparison, man-made global warming has heated the planet by about 1 degree Celsius so far, and a United Nations report this fall urged policymakers to limit total warming to 1.5 degrees.

The scale of volcanic cooling has given some climate scientists an idea: Could we forestall the worst consequences of global warming by spraying sulfur particles into the atmosphere – by using technology to emulate a massive volcano?

In the latest episode of Future Perfect, we explain solar geoengineering, as experts call this idea. If it sounds scary to you, it should! It has for a few years been a little taboo subject among scientists. Spraying chemicals in the atmosphere is outlandish and reckless, and, worst of all, like a distraction from the key task of reducing carbon emissions. And to be clear, we absolutely need to reduce climate emissions, no matter what.

But as the US is withdrawn from the Paris climate deal, and Brazil's new far-right president threatens to do the same, scientists and advocates are increasingly recognizing that we need to research unconventional ways to fight climate change. And they see solar geoengineering as a last resort to prevent utter disaster. We would need to know how to do it, even if we just keep it behind a glass door marked "Break in Case of Emergency."

And we need to speak about it in a country without borders and geoengineer without international cooperation. Given that any government could conceivably engage in this project for only about $ 10 billion a year, it would become very tempting, like India, China, or the whole developed world. for a country with a tendency to avoid a climate change, or to prevent catastrophic events, to spray aerosols into the atmosphere unilaterally.

"Gernot Wagner, a Harvard economist and expert on geoengineering, told us," but somebody somewhere else will try to pull the trigger on this. And even if you think it's nuts that anyone would consider this to be a part of a semi-rational climate policy portfolio … and when somebody is compelled to pull the trigger? "

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