The climate engineers

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - 02:21 in Earth & Climate

Schemes to reflect sun or absorb CO2 warrant study - to sort the real science from the science fictionEmissions of carbon dioxide are rising even faster than was expected, and if they continue to do so we are on track for global temperatures which are likely to be 4C higher, or even more, by 2100, with disastrous consequences. With no action agreed by the recent G20 meeting, there is still no sign that we are even beginning to control emissions, let alone reduce them by the target of at least 50% by 2050, widely regarded as the minimum necessary to avoid that. Some people are therefore now suggesting that we should seriously consider geoengineering - that is, intervening directly to engineer the climate system, so as to moderate the rise of temperature. Is this possible? How? At a reasonable cost? Without undesirable side-effects? Who could do it? Who should control...

Read the whole article on The Guardian - Science

More from The Guardian - Science

Related

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox!