Pumping sulphur particles into the atmosphere to mimic the cooling effect of a large volcanic eruption has been proposed as a last-ditch solution to combating climate change -- but doing so would cause problems of its own, including potentially catastrophic drought, say researchers.
Sulphur "sunshades" are just one example of a "geo-engineering" solution to climate change. Such solutions involve artificially modifying our climate to counteract the effects of human greenhouse gas emission.
(Via KurzweilAI.net.)
Friday, August 03, 2007
'Sunshade' for global warming could cause drought
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I'm glad you cited this article. It shows that trying to solve a complex, mega-scale, dynamic problem like global warming (and it's converse, global dimming) will not be easy.
In fact, it may be near impossible, as the citation illustrates: trying to do something like inject sulphur particles into the atmosphere to reverse global warming, for example, may have unintended side effects, like drought, that may be as bad or worse, more rapidly and in certain crucial agricultural or populated areas, than the long-term effects of the problem one is trying to resolve. Then we may have two vast problems to try to balance and fix simultaneously.
Geo-engineering, as technology advances, may be tempting to experiment with, but it should be extremely limited so that the effects can be tested in a "local" area, and so the possible side-effects can be limited, and hopefully recovered from if they turn out badly.
Problem is, though, the temptation and urgency to try to deal with global warming by geo-engineering may lead to efforts that have a negative feedback effect or dynamically produce unexpected, unpredicted effects after a longer period than is spent watching and testing for negative effects, and may spread further than intended due to the same, more subtle, long-term interactions with the environment. Quite the pickle.
Reduction of greenhouse gases, and other restrictions of sources of the current problem are probably much safer than adding something new to the atmosphere to reduce the effects of the source emissions.
Even that, though, will be extremely difficult, considering population growth and the inherent follow-on air pollution by more countries getting into heavy industrialization and energy use, like China and India, among all the others like the US, Europe, and Japan, who already are the lead polluters and energy users on the planet.
We may be in for a world of hurt if we cannot effectively change quickly enough to reverse the deleterious effects of our previous ignorance and uses of technology to maintain our current standards of living.
We need some rabbits to be pulled out of the hat of this same technological arena. I think we have 10 to 15 years to invent those rabbits. If none are forthcoming in that period, I foresee a world population decline through war, subsequent dysfunction, and the effects of migration over time.
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