HOT POTATO - Global warming has been one of the toughest issues that humanity is finding a hard time to face. Scientists, experts, and politicians are throwing ideas into the ring but so far, the results haven't yielded a definite solution.
So far, global warming was blamed on the irresponsibility of mankind themselves in abusing the environment. The causes of global warming are being slowly identified and pinpointed. However, what the planet is in dire need is a solution to the already intensifying problem that is global warming.In this light, researchers from Harvard have thrown in a suggestion that might have an effect on global warming but will, however, require extensive research as it has never been explored previously. The team worked with other researchers from Princeton and MIT and proposed to diminish the amount of sunlight that reaches the surface of the Earth which is called solar geotechnics or solar geoengineering.
In their paper, the researchers explained the possibility of introducing particles that reflect sunlight into the earth's atmosphere and its effects on the Earth. The team reiterated that their proposal is not meant to the trends of global warming caused by mankind such as curb the rising temperatures resulting from industrialization or shoot down the ballooning carbon dioxide emission. The team of researchers also pointed out that going overboard in dimming the sun might make the situation even worse.
Peter Irvine, a postdoctoral research fellow from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and lead author of the study, explains further that their proposal could be likened to a drug used to treat high blood pressure where the correct dosage could reduce the risks and an incorrect or overdosage could be harmful.
Solar geoengineering, as explained on Harvard's website, has the goal to reflect a small fraction of sunlight back into space. This will increase the amount of solar radiation that will be sent back into space, effectively cooling the planet. This move should break the link from concentrations to temperatures leading to a reduced rate of climate damages.
Some proposed solar geoengineering technologies are marine cloud brightening which would reflect more sunlight back to space, cirrus cloud thinning which would emit more long-wave radiation from the planet out to space, space-based technology will act like sun shields positioned in space, and stratospheric-based technology would involve tiny reflective particles that could scatter a small amount of sunlight back into outer space.
