Is Geoengineering the Answer to Global Warming?

Remember An Inconvenient Truth? Remember the bit about our handsomest politicians coming up with a cheap, last-minute way to combat global warming, i.e. Geoengineering?

Coverage of geoengineering has been consistently more limited than of the carbon reduction narrative that most of us are familiar with. What little exists for widespread consumption has often been framed in criticism. Seen by many as merely the backup plan, serious discussion of geoengineering seldom reaches the mainstream. And when it does, it is usually presented as a sub-prime, or even dystopian, scenario. But rightly or wrongly, a number of solutions have been investigated. And of these, it is the area of sun dimming that receives the most attention.

How we know it works

Earth’s average temperature lowered by 0.5C when Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991, supporting the notion that certain particles in the upper atmosphere could produce enough shade to bring down Earth’s temperature. The International Panel on Climate Change has suggested that a 1.5C reduction in global temperatures could be achieved using this method for just a few billion dollars per year.

Not surprising then, that geoengineering methods have found an audience among global elites. Among these, Bill Gates recently financed an experiment to see if chalk dust, placed in the upper atmosphere, could bring down global temperatures. This has since been shelved, due to external pressures. Arguments against the scheme included health and safety concerns, as well as fears for crop production.

A good idea, badly presented?

But there is also the issue of presentation, which has been a common theme undermining a number of ideas. According to Forbes magazine, environmentalists fear that a shift in strategy away from greenhouse gas reduction and towards geoengineering could be a green light for the big carbon producers to return to business as usual. When considering the mass media's penchant for oversimplification, these fears are not without foundation. Nevertheless, the clock is ticking and, as yet, carbon reduction policies alone are not on course to solve the problem.

But if it is still not “last minute” enough for our handsomest politicians to intervene, then when will it be?

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