The idea of reducing the amount of sunlight hitting our planet to reverse climate change was once considered a last resort that could only be seen in movies like "The Matrix" or "Snowpiercer". According to CNBC, the White House will be coordinating a five year research plan to assess the feasibility of solargeoengineering.
Humans and the environment are at risk from implementing sunlight-blocking. The White House's cautious interest in it is seen as a positive sign by some advocates.
Chris Sacca, founder of the climate, said that light reflection has the potential to safeguard the livelihoods of billions of people.
The US government has entertained the idea before. The plan to spray the ocean with reflective particles was outlined in a report to the president. The cost of Earth-cooling initiatives based on aerosols has gone up to $10 billion, according to a professor of environmental law.
Sulfur dioxide, the smelly stuff that billows out of volcanoes when they erupt, would be a good candidate for aerosol injection.
Other people propose using sea salt to increase the reflectivity of clouds by injecting them with sulfur dioxide, which is blatantly pollutionous.
Many worry that these are just a Band-Aid to a problem that requires global systemic change to be addressed. According to Janos Pasztor, the executive director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative, emissions reductions are key to combat climate change, but he doesn't dismiss alternative solutions as being supplementary to cutting down on CO2
"You can't judge what the country does on solar-radiation modification without looking at what it's doing in emission reductions," Pasztor said. Modification of the sun's rays will not be a solution to the climate crisis.
It's not a substitute for reducing emissions when it comes to solargeoengineering. We don't know what the consequences of these ideas will be. The consequences we can predict, such as acid rain and respiratory illness, are hard to ignore.
Climate change scientists have bad news for southern Florida.
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