Dimming the Sun ‘not the way to fight climate change'
Dimming the Sun is not the solution to climate change, the majority of the public has been found to believe.
Polling by YouGov revealed that Britons are sceptical about plans to dim the Sun though geoengineering projects, with more than half unwilling to support climate tinkering.
The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria), a government body, announced nearly £57 million last week for 21 'climate cooling' projects, including five outdoor field trials.
It will include experiments to reflect sunlight back into space by brightening clouds, injecting aerosols into the atmosphere and using computer modelling to determine the feasibility of building a giant sunshade in space.
But polling by YouGov has showed that while the majority still believes that the worst impact of climate change can be mitigated by humans, far fewer think geoengineering is the right solution.
Just 16 per cent said they would be willing to support stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), in which particles are released into the atmosphere to mimic the cooling effect of volcanic eruptions.
Likewise, only 31 per cent said they would back marine cloud brightening, where sea salt particles are sprayed into clouds to increase their reflectivity, and just 18 per cent approve of research into space sunshades.
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They explained the ants "spread mainly through horticultural imports, especially potted plants and trees from the Mediterranean". They added: "If T. magnum were to establish here, it could become a nuisance. "They form vast supercolonies, displace native species and can even cause structural issues by excavating under paving." Although the species has not marched into the UK yet, a spokesperson for Defra said the agency "remains vigilant" to the threat. The countryside around Zurich has been tormented by the ants since 2018. 9 9 9 Despite an almighty effort to clear them out, the ants remain "well established" in four areas. In Winterthur, they blocked a billion-pound construction project when they settled exactly where a multi-track railroad tunnel was planned. In the nearby Oetwil an der Limmat region, one supercolony infested an entire five-hectare potato field - about seven football pitches. A local, Agnes Wirth, told Swiss site SRF: "There were so many ants, you couldn't see the floor anymore." But that is dwarfed by the colony in Volketswil, on the other side of Zurich, where an area the size of 35 football pitches is teeming with the busy-body bugs. The infestation is so enormous that the local authority has been legally forced to act. Katharina Weber of the Zurich Department of Construction said: "In areas with large infestations, a coordinated approach by specialists is required. 9 9 9 "This means a plan is needed, and special pest controllers must be deployed. These can target the insecticide at the nests." In the UK, DEFRA recommends that anyone who sees a non-native insect species takes a photo and reports it. Mike Fox, record manager for the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society, said: "As far as I know, there are no records of Tapinoma magnum becoming established in the UK but of course it could possible in the future." 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