Every day seems to bring another bad piece of news about global warming. Just this month, we found out the oceans are saltier than ever and 2010 will probably be the warmest on record, so it's clear that we have a serious problem on our hands.
A solution that some scientists have been touting is so-called "geoengineering," which we've written about before. Basically, that means it's not enough for us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions alone to fight global warming. Rather, we have to engineer the Earth's atmosphere to deal with more carbon dioxide and methane than it's equipped to handle.
A couple of new studies from a climate scientist at the University of Calgary suggest that "levitating" engineered nano-particles of sulphuric acid, as well as a direct airborne release of the chemical, could reduce global warming.
Scientists have already looked at injecting sulphur dioxide into the upper atmosphere, but this new approach is supposed to reflect more solar radiation back into space using fewer particles.
David Keith is a director in the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy at the University of Calgary, and the author behind the two studies supporting this idea. He says geoengineering is not the silver bullet that is needed to end global warming.
"It cannot offset the risks that come from increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," he says. "If we don’t halt man-made CO2 emissions, no amount of climate engineering can eliminate the problems— massive emissions reductions are still necessary.”
Geoengineers like Keith make me feel like an old-school environmentalist, someone who wants to decrease our own emissions by driving less and recycling more, rather than artificially fixing our atmosphere. But he says it's not an either/or situation, and that we have to both in order to fight off the worst effects of global warming.
So, what do you think? Can we do enough conservation to reduce our emissions to fight global warming, or do we need geoengineers like Keith to get us out of this mess? Let us know in the comments section.
Image: NASA
Tags: Green Science
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