Geoengineering’s Risks Need to Be Studied More
Even some of the best-sounding ideas could have unintended consequences.
All solutions are not created equal.
Photographer: Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
More than a dozen private companies around the world are looking to profit from extreme measures to combat global warming — filling the sky with sunlight-blocking particles, brightening clouds or changing the chemistry of the oceans. We live in precarious times when it’s not hard to find the technology and the money to change the Earth’s climate. The problem is that nobody knows how to control the unintended consequences.
Some scientists who’ve studied and modeled the complexity of Earth’s oceans and atmosphere say any “geoengineering” scheme big enough to affect the climate could put people at risk of dramatic changes in the weather, crop failures, damage to the ozone layer, international conflict and other irreversible problems.