geoengineering

High-Profile Geoengineering Experiment Shuts DownA beleaguered solar geoengineering project failed to conduct field tests because of opposition from environmentalists and Indigenous residentsBy Chelsea Harvey & E&E NewsThe idea of spraying substances into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight has raised concerns among some scientists. Credit: chuchart duangdaw/Getty ImagesCLIMATEWIRE | Harvard University ended a solar geoengineering research project after years of setbacks derailed efforts to infuse small parts of…

But the project switched locations several times. Most recently, the team hoped to launch a balloon to test out the aircraft’s hardware from the Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden in the summer of 2021. But those plans were canceled on the recommendation of the project’s advisory committee, which determined the researchers should hold discussions with the public ahead of any flights. The effort was also heavily criticized by the Saami Council, which represents the indigenous Saami peoples’ groups in Sweden and…

On a bright chilly day last December, a crowd of doctors and scientists gathered at a research institute atop a hill in Novato, California. Their goal is to help people add years to their lifespans, and to live those extra years in good health. But the meeting’s participants had another goal as well: to be recognized as a credible medical field. For too long, modern medicine has focused on treating disease rather than preventing it, they say. They believe that it’s time to move from reactive healthcare to proactive…

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(a) Annual mean global mean surface temperature above pre-industrial reference temperature (b) Change in annual mean total depth ocean heat content (OHC) relative to 2020–2030 conditions in Control. (c) Difference in vertical OHC between end-of-simulation (2090–2100) conditions and present-day conditions in Control. Credit: Geophysical Research Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2023GL106132 Climate change is heating the oceans,…

CLIMATEWIRE | Climate scientists, environmental activists and philanthropists met privately last month to prepare for an expected surge of Silicon Valley funding related to last-ditch measures for slowing global warming.The two-day gathering on solar geoengineering — or efforts to increase the reflectivity of the planet through spraying particles into the stratosphere or altering cloud cover — shows how the notion of limiting sunlight absorbed by the earth has moved from taboo to plausible in part by gaining the…

Since 1979, Arctic ice has shrunk by 1.35 million square miles, a new JPL study found ice loss in Greenland is far worse than previously thought and Antarctic ice is now at the lowest level since records began. The more they melt, the faster the rate of decline for the ice that remains until we’re faced with a series of catastrophes. The most immediate of which is sea level rise which threatens to eradicate whole nations that are situated on low-lying islands. How do we stop such a problem? While we remedy the longer-term…

A new study suggests that stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) could effectively reduce ice sheet melting caused by climate change. However, this geoengineering approach is contentious, focusing on symptoms rather than the underlying causes of global warming, with uncertain impacts on natural systems. Credit: SciTechDaily.comSimulations indicate that injecting aerosols into the stratosphere could mitigate the melting of ice sheets caused by global warming.One of the many effects of global warming is sea-level rise due to…

This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.When governments find themselves fighting the threat of coastal erosion, their default response tends to be pretty simple: If sand is disappearing from a beach, they pump in more sand to replace it. This strategy, known as “beach nourishment,” has become a cornerstone of coastal defenses around the world, complementing hard structures like sea walls. North Carolina, for instance, has dumped more than 100 million tons of sand onto its…

Subscale deployment How might subscale deployment be accomplished? Most stratospheric scientific studies of aerosol injection assume the operative material is sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas, which is 50% sulfur by mass. Another plausible option is hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which cuts the mass requirement almost in half, though it is more hazardous to ground and flight crews than SO2 and thus might be eliminated from consideration. Carbon disulfide (CS2) gas cuts the mass requirement by 40% and is generally less hazardous than…