Cool Geo-Whiz Warming Ideas
More scientists are thinking outside the box on global warming-way outside
A number of scientists are practically knocking down the door with geoengineering solutions. Advancing an idea once worked on by the father of the hydrogen bomb, Edward Teller, atmospheric scientist and Nobel Prize-winner Paul Crutzen believes Earth's temperature could be quickly brought down by spraying pollution into the atmosphere on a global scale. He issued a paper earlier this year pointing out that heavy artillery could fire rockets into the stratosphere. Once there, emissions from a special fuel would convert into sunlight-reflecting sulfate particles.
Latham has his own plan: a fleet of unmanned vessels, powered mostly by wind, that skim the ocean surface spraying salt water into clouds to enhance their reflectivity. Another suggestion is a balloon-suspended tube, or chimney, perhaps 10 miles long, that blows particulate pollution from factories or utility plants directly into the stratosphere; that pollution would also reflect sunlight. Roger Angel, a professor of optical sciences and astronomy at the University of Arizona, is studying an idea that's been around for more than 20 years: hanging a sunshade in space at the point where the gravitational pull is balanced between the Earth and the sun. Angel proposes using thin, transparent ceramic film that would hang as a cloud in space, deflecting enough solar radiation to keep global warming in check. Sound expensive? Try a few trillion dollars. "We'd have to get down launch costs," Angel admits. If only they gave Nobel Prizes for understatement.
Risks. In fact, every geoengineering design comes with significant pitfalls. Launching sulfate, a form of sulfur, into the stratosphere could cause ozone depletion and acid rain. Critics say Latham's plan would work on a regional level but might not provide the needed global benefits. Both would cost billions of dollars. More important, many scientists, including those who are cooking up geoengineering ideas, fear that such quick fixes would reduce the incentive to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which will continue to have adverse effects, such as ocean acidification. Alan Robock, a climatologist at Rutgers University, also points out that once these projects ended, global temperatures would skyrocket. "To keep the world's environment hostage [to these projects] is scary."
Maybe so, but don't expect them to be dismissed out of hand. Davis is promising more hearings on climate change technology, which will probably include further discussion of geoengineering schemes. There are signs that the executive branch is also getting interested in these controversial ideas. NASA is holding a closed-door conference on geoengineering in November, and Crutzen says he has received an inquiry about his proposal from the Department of Energy. "You know in science somewhere there are answers," Davis says. "But the clock is running."
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