Researchers call for urgent exploration of methods to cool Earth
It is already obvious that some governments are not acting fast enough to keep the planet's temperature from rising dangerously. While it is essential to continue to concentrate on reducing methane and carbon dioxide emissions as quickly as possible, other methods of cooling the planet need to be urgently explored, according to academics at the University of Cambridge's engineering department.
Related: UK scientists to launch outdoor geoengineering experiments
One of the problems is that many of the ideas put forward so far, including injecting sulphates into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight back into space, could do more harm than good. This is because sulphates cause acid rain and interfere with rainfall patterns.
To avoid controversy researchers are experimenting with alternatives to sulphates, substances that reflect sunlight but are benign. They will hoist them into the stratosphere using weather balloons then recover them to see what changes this exposure causes. No materials will be released but their cooling effect and whether they could otherwise be harmless can be gauged.
Other ideas like drilling holes in the Arctic ice in the winter and pumping seawater over existing ice floes in below freezing air temperatures to thicken them are also being tried, along with spraying seawater to form clouds over the ocean, also to reflect sunlight. If these ideas are otherwise harmless, and work, they might yet save us.
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