For all the fears and controversy about a warming planet, scientists have settled on one simple fact: It would be pretty cheap and easy to cool it back down again.
The potential side effects, however, are serious. Various tactics for blocking the sun could dry out equatorial regions, accelerate sea-level rise, trigger wars, and sidestep the need to confront problems of fossil fuels beyond the simple issue of the earth's average temperature.
But now, after another year of record temperatures and stalemated climate politics, a more serious look at the science of quick-fix global temperature solutions may be coming. Both the Obama administration and the United Nations-led climate research body, now writing its first full-scale assessment report since 2007, are giving earnest attention to geoengineering. ...
Policy makers need to know more about their options, said Mr. Armstrong, executive director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the coordinating body for federal spending on climate research. "There has not been enough open public discussion about the pros and cons of geoengineering," he said.
Even some of the small handful of American university researchers pursuing geoengineering have qualms about it. "Personally, I think it's insane to try to do this," said David S. Battisti, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington. "I'm doing work on this," he said, "but I hope that whatever I do, it never inspires anyone to actually use this technology.
via chronicle.com
My contribution to the open public discussion? I think it is insane as well, an especially Dr. Doofenschmirtz sort of idea.
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