Harvard Scientists Are Really Launching a Sun-Blocking Geoengineering Experiment
A proposal to spray particles into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight and lower temperatures is actually getting the green light.
By Avery Thompson
Dec 5, 2018
If we're not going to stop climate change by reducing emissions, then we're going to have to engineer some outlandish way to save civilization—that's the basic logic behind geoengineering, which researchers in certain circles have been talking up for the past ten-plus years. Now, somebody's actually going to try it, at least as a small-scale test.
One of these wild ideas is to fill the atmosphere with particles that block some sunlight from getting through. Harvard scientists are about to launch a small amount of these particles into the stratosphere in a test to be held next year.
The weird-sounding idea has actual roots in history and science. In 1991, the volcano Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines, sending millions of tons of ash and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. This layer of particulates actually lowered global temperatures by almost a full degree Fahrenheit for the following two years.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a25401599/harvard-stratosphere-particulates-geoengineering/
