Solar Climate Intervention: A last-ditch effort to combat climate change
The world is failing in its fight against climate change. As countries continue to struggle to find effective ways to reduce emissions and slow the earth’s rapidly rising temperatures, their strategies are becoming increasingly desperate.
It is becoming more likely that even the strongest global responses will not be enough to stop the momentum of climate change from causing unrepairable damage for many years to come.
Despite the coordination of many of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world in The Paris Agreement, most countries are not on track to meet their own targets. However, even if these countries were to meet their targets exactly, the world would still be on track to heat more than 2 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels. This 2-degree benchmark is one that world leaders in the Paris Agreement previously declared to stay far from.
What was originally dismissed as an idea of science fiction, Solar climate intervention (SCI) recently entered the conversation as a method to buy the world some much needed time as it seeks to combat climate change. The intervention is a type of solar geoengineering that seeks to artificially cool the planet by reflecting more of the sun’s energy back into space. This would create a similar cooling effect as would a volcanic eruption, where the resulting cloud reflects the sun’s rays, and in turn, cools the earth’s surface.
SCI is not characterised by one specific approach to deflecting the sun’s rays, but each method seeks to achieve the same result. According to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, one of the approaches involves adding particles to the stratosphere in order to absorb and deflect sunlight (known as ‘stratospheric aerosol injection’). A second strategy, called ‘marine cloud brightening,’ seeks to increase the reflectivity of marine clouds by brightening them using a salt-water spray. Furthermore, a strategy called ‘cirrus cloud thinning’ introduces more precipitation to the upper portions of the atmosphere to reflect more sunlight. The considered use of SCI reflects the desperate point at which the world has found itself, for it is clear that this is not a solution to climate change and is only a temporary fix.
The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions posits that this strategy should be implemented in three conceivable situations. Firstly, a country may use SCI as a proactive measure. These countries might be far from reaching tipping points related to their own emission goals but could consider SCI as a part of their climate response. Secondly, it could be considered as a localised response. Certain regions that suffer the most from climate change could use SCI as a way to maintain their ecological and environmental equilibrium as much as possible, while the world around them continues to try and desperately lower its emissions. This might make sense for somewhere like the Great Barrier Reef or the Arctic, where local atmospheric regulation might allow these regions to be saved before they reach a point of no return. Lastly, the strategy could be considered as an emergency response. In a region reaching a tipping point, like the Western Antarctic ice sheet, SCI could be used as a method of rapid response.
According to Douglas MacMartin, a researcher at Cornell University, the strategy will work with 100 percent certainty. But, he raises the issue that while he is sure how this will affect the earth’s temperature, he is unsure of what might happen as a result of the environmental manipulation. The strategy might have strong consequences like hurricanes, forest fires, or any number of natural disasters. We just do not know for sure.
Funding for SCI is small but growing. In the United States, Congress gave the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration approximately £3 million to research the intervention, and other institutions like Cornell and the University of Washington continue to amass funding to research methods of cloud brightening and aerosol injection.
While these programs and funding indicate progress, progress is not what the world needs. It needs time and solutions. Climate change has reached a critical point where ocean levels are rising, cities are at risk, and the frequency of natural disasters is rapidly increasing. Temperatures are rising so quickly that the arctic sea may see an ice-free summer as soon as the 2030s.
Although it is not a solution, SCI is a strategy that will buy the world time, which might be essential in avoiding a point of no return with the damage brought about by greenhouse gas emissions. More time would allow countries emitting high levels of greenhouse gasses to amend their energy industries and fossil fuel policies. It might give time for electric cars to become the new norm, and for electric public transport to become the dominant means of transportation in cities. As the world reaches its tipping point, leaders must continue to consider options like SCI to give themselves the best chance at saving the already crippled environment.
