Sounds like a bright idea.
Scientists have received approval to soon test whether “dimming” the light from the sun will combat global warming — a strategy some critics have recently described as “barking mad.”
Geo-engineers at the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria) in the United Kingdom have allocated over $66 million to inject aerosolized particles into the stratosphere to reflect the vital light the sun provides to the Earth in a bid to hedge global warming, the Times of London reported.
The experiment will send high-flying planes to release sulfate particles into the stratosphere, near the lower atmosphere, which would then prevent some of the sun’s rays from reaching the ground by reflecting them toward space.
Proponents of the project suggest that the controversial process could be a cheap way to cool the planet to combat the threat of global warming, according to the TOL.
Small-scale indoor testing could begin within weeks, with the plan’s architects claiming the controversial measures are necessary to avoid a potential “tipping point” catastrophe in the future.
“The uncomfortable truth is that our current warming trajectory makes a number of such tipping points distinctly possible over the next century,” Mark Symes, the project manager at Aria, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, told The Guardian.
“Having spoken to hundreds of researchers, we reached the conclusion that a critical missing part of our understanding was real-world, physical data. These would show us whether any of these potential approaches would actually work and what their effects might be,” he added.
Advocates, including Dominic Cummings, the former longtime chief adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, even allege farms could be aided by less light as crops would suffer less from heat stress, according to the report.
Jack Forbes / NY Post Design
Other geo-engineering methods that will be considered under the project’s banner include “marine cloud brightening,” which would spray sea salt into the atmosphere to make clouds whiter and reflect more solar radiation.
Another strategy includes breaking up thin cirrus clouds, which act as heat-trapping blankets, the Times reported.
However, many critics have expressed concerns over the ambitious attempt at weather control, claiming that dimming the sun will have unforeseen repercussions in weather patterns and food production, the report said.
One pointed critique offered by environmental scientists called it “barking mad” and likened the plan to treating cancer with aspirin, the Guardian reported last month.
“The Aria geoengineering program is a dangerous distraction from the work that needs to be done to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emissions,” professor Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania and Professor Raymond Pierrehumbert of University of Oxford said.
Government agency ARIA is considered to be the equivalent of the US’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — a secretive agency that funds futuristic technology that has previously included armed drones, driverless cars, herbicides, and the Internet.
