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Business Standard
3 days ago
- Science
- Business Standard
Plan B for the planet depends on oversight, not technology alone
Not too long ago, the idea of cooling Earth by bouncing sunlight back into space would have seemed like a fringe fantasy — equal parts sci-fi and geopolitical taboo. These days, it's inching into the heart of serious climate conversations. This is no coincidence. Climate forecasts, once laden with caveats, are now sounding more like sirens. The World Meteorological Organization has warned that global temperatures could rise as much as 2°C above pre-industrial levels in the next five years, breaching a climate red line. At that mark, we're looking at shrinking crop yields, collapsing ecosystems, and more than a third of the global population potentially exposed to extreme heat. In this climate of urgency, Solar Radiation Modification (SRM), a subfield of solar geoengineering, is garnering attention. The concept is simple: Reflect a small portion of sunlight back into space to artificially cool the planet. The methods vary wildly — from injecting sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere to spreading reflective glass particles over Arctic ice. Elegant in theory but risky in practice. Tinker with the global thermostat to cool one region, and you might cause drought in another. The models are incomplete, risks planetary, and governance nearly absent. Still, money is flowing in. According to SRM360, a non-profit tracking developments in the field, funding between 2020 and 2024 reached $112.1 million — over 3x the $34.9 million spent between 2010 and 2014. And the momentum isn't slowing: $164.7 million has already been committed for the next phase, from 2025 through 2029. A key player in this new wave is the UK's Advanced Research and Innovation Agency (ARIA), which has pledged roughly $80 million towards real-world SRM experiments. Its 'Exploring Climate Cooling' initiative is pushing boundaries: Researchers under the programme aim to test whether they can thicken Arctic ice, brighten marine clouds, or even simulate the effects of orbital mirrors. Mark Symes, ARIA's programme director, put it bluntly in a recent BBC interview: 'There is a critical missing gap in our knowledge on the feasibility and impacts of SRM, and to fill that gap requires real-world outdoor experiments.' But that approach carries reputational risks. Over the past decade, several respected institutions— including Harvard and a UK university consortium involving Oxford — have launched SRM projects, only to pause or cancel them in the face of political backlash and scientific hesitation. But not everyone is waiting for academic approval. Since 2017, the Arctic Ice Project — a privately run effort — has scattered tiny reflective glass beads across 17,500 square metres of Arctic sea ice. The move drew protests from Native Alaskan leaders. It now hopes to scale up its deployment across 100,000 square kilometres. Then there's the do-it-yourself crowd. In 2022, a British independent researcher launched a weather balloon that released sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere, dubbing the project SATAN — Stratospheric Aerosol Transport and Nucleation. Around the same time, Silicon Valley-backed startup Make Sunsets began launching similar balloons while planning to sell 'cooling credits' to fund the operation. Critics argue that such experiments, if conducted without rigorous review, may violate international environmental laws, including the 1985 Vienna Convention, which protects the ozone layer. Some participants point to a lack of national regulation as justification. That legal vacuum, however, doesn't equal a green light. SRM360 has also flagged $1.1 million in anonymous donations to SRM efforts, raising concerns about transparency in a field with potential global consequences. And then, there's the spectre that haunts every SRM debate: Fossil fuel interests. Critics worry that solar geoengineering could offer a convenient excuse to avoid the harder — and more politically painful — task of cutting emissions.
Daily Mail
08-05-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
Scientists try to change Britain's clouds to let in less sunlight in controversial experiment to combat global warming
In the battle against climate change, controversial experiments are set to take place in Britain within the next five years. The UK government 's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) has allocated £57 million for so-called 'geoengineering' projects that aim to slow global warming. Outdoor trials expected to start as soon as 2027 will include 'brightening clouds' in order to reflect sunlight away from Earth. Marine Cloud Brightening involves ships spraying saltwater into the sky to enhance the reflectivity of low-lying clouds. The salt will force water droplets in the clouds to come together or 'coalesce', which will make them more reflective and stop so much sunlight reaching Earth. 'You may indeed not be able to see any effect from the ground at all, but you should be able to measure it using equipment that flies through the cloud,' said Professor Mark Symes, programme director for ARIA. Scientists will build the required sprayers and carry out indoor tests before any outdoor trials take place, at as yet undecided locations in the UK, in the winter of 2027 to 2028. Initially, the saltwater sprays will cover an area 330 feet wide, but the outdoor trials could be scaled up to several miles before the end of the decade. According to Professor Symes, such an outdoor trial will be essential to determine the widespread feasibility of Marine Cloud Brightening. 'Modelling and indoor studies are vital, and they can tell us a lot, but they can't tell us everything that we wish to know about feasibility or the impacts of these approaches,' he said. 'Really, to fill that missing gap requires doing real world experiments and collecting real world data, which means experiments that are outdoors.' However, some scientists are concerned that expensive endeavors could fail or even backfire, causing destructive weather patterns and making climate change worse. Mike Hulme, a professor of human geography at the University of Cambridge, warned that Aria is leading the world down a 'slippery slope'. '£57 million is a huge amount of taxpayers' money to be spent on this assortment of speculative technologies intended to manipulate the Earth's climate,' he told the Telegraph. 'Just because they 'work' in a model, or at a micro-scale in the lab or the sky, does not mean they will cool the climate safely, without unwanted side-effects, in the real world. 'There is therefore no way that this research can demonstrate that the technologies are safe, successful or reversible. 'The UK Government is leading the world down what academic analysts call "the slippery slope" towards eventual dangerous large-scale deployment of solar geoengineering technologies.' Meanwhile, Dr Naomi Vaughan, professor of climate change at the University of East Anglia UEA, said sunlight reflecting methods could create a 'new risk' to society. 'Scientists are cautious about solar radiation management research because of how it could be used or misused in the future,' she said. In all, £57 million has been allocated by ARIA for 21 geoengineering projects which will include five outdoor trials, The Telegraph reports. Another University of Cambridge-led project receiving part of the funding is described as an early exploration for the potential of Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI). It would involve a study on how milligram quantities of mineral dusts age in the stratosphere while contained in an air balloon. During this controlled experiment, none of these materials will be released into the atmosphere, and all the materials will be returned to the ground for recovery and analysis by scientists, ARIA said. Scientists at Yale University in Connecticut have already proposed Stratospheric Aerosol Injection at the north and south poles to reverse ice loss. Stratospheric Aerosol Injection is where tiny particles, typically sulfur dioxide (SO2), are released into the stratosphere by planes to reflect sunlight. Scientists at Yale University have already proposed this approach at the north and south poles to reverse ice loss Typically, Stratospheric Aerosol Injection involves the release of tiny sulfur dioxide (SO2) particles into the stratosphere by planes to reflect sunlight. In March 2023, it was revealed scientists had conducted two open-air experiments to test solar radiation management – reflecting sunlight away from the Earth. This project, not funded by ARIA, launched a high-altitude weather balloon that released sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere – the second layer of the atmosphere. Once injected into the stratosphere, sulfur dioxide forms sunlight-reflecting sulfate aerosols, said to have a cooling effect similar to that of a major volcanic eruption. However, in high levels, sulfur dioxide can cause nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and corrosive damage to the airways and lungs. Globally, other geoengineering projects include sucking carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the air with giant fans. There's also 'ocean fertilization' (adding nutrients to the upper ocean to stimulate plant growth) and 'afforestation' (planting trees in areas where there was previously no forest). But there's concerns countries will pursue poorly-regulated geoengineering projects in secret – especially sun-blocking which could have 'unintended consequences'. These could include regional droughts, crop failures and shifts to the Atlantic jet stream, which could drag hurricanes and tropical diseases north. A Bill Gates-backed project has already launched balloons over Baja, Mexico releasing sunlight-reflecting aerosols into Earth's stratosphere. ARIA said in a statement that all experiments being funded are 'subject to an environmental impact and legal assessment, which will be made publicly available before any outdoor experiment takes place'. '[They will be] developed through engagement and consultation with local communities and in line with local regulations and requirements. '[They will be] limited in size, scale, and time-bound, so the effects dissipate within 24 hours or are fully reversible.' WHAT ARE THE SIDE EFFECTS OF GEOENGINEERING STRATEGIES? Scientists have proposed all sorts of solutions to fight climate change, including a number of controversial geoengineering strategies. Among the many include: Afforestation: This technique would irrigate deserts, such as those in Australia and North Africa, to plant millions of trees that could absorb carbon dioxide. Drawback: This vegetation would also draw in sunlight that the deserts currently reflect back into space, and so contribute to global warming. Artificial ocean upwelling: Engineers would use long pipes to pump cold, nutrient-rich water upward to cool ocean-surface waters. Drawback: If this process ever stopped it could cause oceans to rebalance their heat levels and rapidly change the climate. Ocean alkalinisation: This involves heaping lime into the ocean to chemically increase the absorption of carbon dioxide. Drawback: Study suggests it will have of little use in reducing global temperatures. Ocean iron fertilisation: The method involves dumping iron into the oceans to improve the growth of photosynthetic organisms that can absorb carbon dioxide.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Real-world geoengineering experiments revealed by UK agency
Real-world geoengineering experiments spanning the globe from the Arctic to the Great Barrier Reef are being funded by the UK government. They will test sun-reflecting particles in the stratosphere, brightening reflective clouds using sprays of seawater and pumping water on to sea ice to thicken it. Getting this 'critical missing scientific data' is vital with the Earth nearing several catastrophic climate tipping points, said the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria), the government agency backing the plan. If demonstrated to be safe, geoengineering could temporarily cool the planet and give more time to tackle the root cause of the climate crisis: the burning of fossil fuels. The experiments will be small-scale and rigorously assessed before going ahead, Aria said. Other projects in the £56.8m programme will model the impacts of geoengineering on the climate and research how it could be governed internationally. Geoengineering is controversial, with some scientists calling it a 'dangerous distraction' from cutting emissions and concerned about unintended climate impacts. Some previously planned outdoor experiments have been cancelled after strong opposition. However, given the failure of the world to stop emissions rising to date, and the recent run of record hot years, backers of solar geoengineering say researching the technology is vital in case an emergency brake is needed. The Aria programme, along with another £10m project, makes the UK one of the biggest funders of geoengineering research in the world. 'Decarbonisation is the first and best chance of avoiding these tipping points,' said Prof Mark Symes, the programme director at Aria. 'But the current trajectory puts us in danger of triggering some tipping points, regardless of what happens with net zero, so we do need to think about what we might do in that eventuality. 'The point of the programme is to explore and research as transparently as possible whether any of the proposed cooling approaches could ever be used safely,' he said. 'Life in the UK could become very difficult if any of these tipping points were triggered.' Ilan Gur, Aria's CEO, said: 'If science can show us that an elegantly designed spray of seawater can protect and preserve the incredible biodiversity of the Great Barrier Reef, isn't that something we want to understand?' The announcement was criticised by Prof Raymond Pierrehumbert at the University of Oxford: 'Solar geoengineering has enormous and troubling implications for global society. The UK funding sets a dangerous precedent for other governments to jump on the bandwagon [and] it is the height of folly to open the door to field experiments in the absence of any national or international governance.' Mary Church, at the Center for International Environmental Law, said: 'Solar geoengineering is inherently unpredictable and risks breaking further an already broken climate system. Conducting small-scale experiments risks normalising highly controversial theories and accelerating technological development, creating a slippery slope toward full-scale deployment.' Most geoengineering proposals aim to block sunlight reaching and heating the Earth's surface. However, solar radiation management (SRM) has the potential for serious unintended consequences, such as shifting rains vital to food production. Some private companies are already working on geoengineering; that makes building the scientific evidence base even more important, Gur said. The Aria-funded experiments include sending a weather balloon into the stratosphere above the US or UK. Milligram samples of non-toxic mineral dust will be exposed to the high-altitude conditions and then recovered to assess how the particles' properties change with time. Another three experiments will test how seawater sprays or electrical charges delivered by drones can seed tiny water droplets, making clouds over the oceans reflect more sunlight. One will expand current work over the Great Barrier Reef, which is in crisis because of global heating, and may reach 100sq km in scale, while another will take place on the UK coast. A fifth experiment will involve pumping water on to sea ice in Canada in winter, reaching up to one 1 sq km in scale. The water will freeze and preserve the ice sheet for longer in summer. Bright white ice reflects far more sunlight than the dark ocean revealed when sea ice is lost to warming waters. There will be an environmental impact assessment made public before any outdoor experiments take place and local communities will have been consulted. There is also an independent oversight committee as part of the approval process, Aria said, chaired by the leading climate scientist Prof Piers Forster and including members from India and Ghana. The Aria programme will also assess space reflectors, which are sunshades placed into orbit, using modelling to determine their feasibility. 'This is the most speculative of all the approaches we're funding,' said Symes. Volcanic eruptions naturally inject particles into the atmosphere and another project will fly drones through the plumes to measure the particles' effects. Seven modelling teams will investigate the impacts of geoengineering on climate and ecosystems, especially in developing countries, where about 85% of the world's population lives. There will be a further five teams working on ethics and governance to explore the wider societal implications of geoengineering, such as how any future deployment should be agreed and managed.
BBC News
07-05-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Experiments to 'dim the sun' one step closer in the UK
Geo-engineering is the process of artificially modifying the atmosphere and climate. SRM techniques which try to mimic the natural cooling that occurs after the eruption of volcanoes releasing ash and gases, is one of the most controversial. ARIA programme director Mark Symes said "there is a critical missing gap in our knowledge on the feasibility and impacts of SRM and to fill that gap requires real-world outdoor experiments". The agency announced on Wednesday it will fund five projects that could lead to these real-world experiments. These include thickening Arctic sea ice to make it more reflective, Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) and Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), both intended to add material into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight. Outdoor experiments could take place as soon as this winter. They will also fund a modelling based project that would investigate mirrors or shades deployed into space. One proposed MCB experiment is to spray a fine mist of natural sea water into the atmosphere from a coastal location in the UK. The hope is that it would brighten existing cloud and increase its reflectivity. Another funded SAI project could involve adding a small amount of natural mineral dust high into the atmosphere from a weather balloon in either the UK or US. ARIA stress that "before any outdoor experiment takes place there will be a full and transparent public consultation with necessary environmental assessments taken place". And any outdoor experimentation "will only occur after robust oversight measures which won't include the release of any toxic materials". But Raymond Pierrehumbert, Professor of Planetary Physics at Oxford University is "extremely worried" about SRM. "People want a Plan B if we don't reduce global emissions. But there really is no Plan B, it just kicks the can down the road because [solar geo-engineering] doesn't take away the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere".
Gulf Insider
26-04-2025
- Science
- Gulf Insider
UK To Greenlight Experiments To "Dim The Sun" In Bid To Stop Global Warming
It's a project reminiscent of the movie Snowpiercer, in which governments institute a global experiment to spray chemicals into the atmosphere to stop global warming and end up creating a new ice age instead. Once again reality is downstream from fiction as the UK is set to bankroll an experiment to 'dim the sun'. This goal will be pursued in field trials which could include injecting aerosols into the atmosphere, or brightening clouds to reflect sunshine. The project is being considered by scientists as a way to prevent 'runaway climate change', despite the fact that there is zero evidence to support the claim of runaway climate change. Aria, the Government's advanced research and invention funding agency, has set aside £50 million for projects, which will be announced in the coming weeks. Prof Mark Symes, the program director for Aria (Advanced Research and Invention Agency), said there would be 'small controlled outdoor experiments on particular approaches'. 'We will be announcing who we have given funding to in a few weeks and when we do so we will be making clear when any outdoor experiments might be taking place,' he said. 'One of the missing pieces in this debate was physical data from the real world. Models can only tell us so much. Everything we do is going to be safe by design. We're absolutely committed to responsible research, including responsible outdoor research. We have strong requirements around the length of time experiments can run for and their reversibility and we won't be funding the release of any toxic substances to the environment.' One major area of research is Sunlight Reflection Methods (SRM), which includes Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) whereby tiny particles are released into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight. Another potential project is Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) in which ships would spray sea-salt particles into the sky to enhance the reflectivity of low-lying clouds. Climate scientists say efforts to reduce carbon emissions are not working fast enough and that levels are 'too high', leading to irregular weather patterns and eventually the temperature 'tipping point' in which an exponential crisis is created by heat creating carbon and then carbon creating more heat. The problem is that nothing in this theory is backed by causational evidence or the climate history of the Earth. In other words, climate scientists are siphoning up government grant money to create solutions to a problem that doesn't exist. Click here to read more…
