Climate change has been a hot topic in the scientific community for decades, but this new project certainly has got some people sweating…
The UK government has given the go ahead for scientists to conduct experiments to see if ‘dimming the sun’ can ultimately combat climate change and global warming.
Geo-engineers at the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria) have been given a budget of £50 million (around $66 million) to conduct their experiments, which involves releasing particles into the sky in hopes of reflecting more of the sun’s rays.
If this sounds familiar is because… well, it is probably because this is exactly how we got an eternal winter in the Chris Evan’s led film Snowpiercer. You know, the film where the majority of all life on Earth ceases to exist because we got a little too experimental with our atmosphere in hopes of combatting climate change?
Well, let’s hope this doesn’t spell the end for all of humanity, no pressure.
The experiment is said to research the possibility of simply reflecting the sun’s rays back into space
The experiment will see high-flying planes release sulfate particles into the stratosphere near the lower atmosphere. This will ideally prevent some of the sun’s rays reaching the ground and reflecting them back into space.
Small-scale indoor testing could begin in a matter of weeks before the larger stratosphere project gets underway.
If everything goes as planned, this could prove to be a relatively cheap way to cool the planet – which early modelling studies have certainly suggested.
Mark Symes, the project manager at Aria the Advanced Research and Invention Agency spoke to the Guardian and explained why this research is necessary.
He said: “The uncomfortable truth is that our current warming trajectory makes a number of such tipping points distinctly possible over the next century
“Having spoken to hundreds of researchers, we reached the conclusion that a critical missing part of our understanding was real-world, physical data.
Experts have warned this avoids dealing with the most pressing issue of decreasing carbon emissions
These would show us whether any of these potential approaches would actually work and what their effects might be.”
However, other experts have expressed their scepticism and insisted it detracts from the immediate need to reduce carbon emissions across the globe.
Professor Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania and Professor Raymond Pierrehumbert of University of Oxford spoke to the Guardian last month and said: “The Aria geoengineering program is a dangerous distraction from the work that needs to be done to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emissions.”
In addition to this, this strategy could result in unintended and potential catastrophic disruption to weather patterns and crop yields.