The climate researcher decided to use solar geoengineering to cool down The earth’s temperature In the same way that volcanoes generate clouds that reflect sunlight.
The idea came about after a US geological survey tracked thousands of tons of sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, which reduced average global temperatures by about one degree Fahrenheit.
While the idea of replicating these conditions to combat climate change has generally been dismissed as more science fiction than real science. But as the effects of climate change become more severe and visible, the idea has received more serious attention, and the White House is coordinating a five-year research plan to study it.
On the downside, the release of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere can damage the ozone layer, cause respiratory diseases and lead to acid rain. As told to CNBC by Edward Parson, professor of environmental law at the University of California, reviewed by Al Arabiya.net.
He added that running a program that cools the Earth by one degree Celsius would cost even less than $10 billion a year. It is significantly cheaper than other mitigation techniques.
Two scenarios.. which one is less bad?
So which of these two scenarios is less negative? Most scientists studying the problem aren’t sure, but think it’s important to start looking into its implications.
Meanwhile, Make Sunsets, founded by climate researcher Luke Eisman, has raised more than half a million dollars in venture capital, and the company’s focus revolves around “hot spots,” according to its website.
“We will make biodegradable high-altitude reflective clouds that will cool the planet. It is a mimic of natural processes, as the ‘glowing clouds’ will prevent catastrophic global warming,” Ezman explained. sunlight.
Ezman doesn’t want to wait for his studies, as he believes there is no more time. He praised his idea, saying, “I haven’t found a better solution, other than ‘albedo enhancement’, which has the potential to keep us below 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels.”
Launching balloons in Baja and selling cooling credits
Make Sunsets plans to launch 3 latex balloons into the atmosphere this January, which will release between 10 and 500 grams of sulfur dioxide. The balloons will include a flight tracking computer, a GPS tracker and a camera. Within a week of each trip, Make Sunsets will post data on their website about what they’ve managed to find.
This isn’t Ezman’s first project, as he’s designed, invented, built and deployed biochar ovens in rural Kenya, a Wi-Fi-connected solar-powered garden sensor, and tiny houses made from shipping containers, among other projects. For a year and a half, Eisman worked as the hardware manager at Silicon Valley’s leading startup shop, Y Combinator.
Izman now lives off the grid in Baja, Mexico, on land he purchased two years ago, where he continues to repair.
As a company, Make Sunsets will sell “cooling credits,” as he calls them, or “carbon credits,” starting at $10, which companies can purchase to offset their carbon footprints.
Ezman was wary of the idea of companies or individuals paying to decarbonize or mitigate the effects of global warming. “I was quite skeptical about the voluntary carbon credit market at first,” he said, “I thought it was really expensive for very legitimate stuff that will hopefully save the world in 50 or 200 years time. which they want to trade the right not to cut down a tree.” The future.
But Eismann believes future carbon markets will evolve to include two things that already work: permanent carbon dioxide removal, which would be expensive, and sunlight-reflecting technology, which Eismann says would be incredibly cheap on a large scale. Emphasizing that the main cost of large-scale solar reflection technological efforts is sulfur dioxide.
Big criticisms
Ezman’s theory faces some criticism, mainly because negative results are very difficult to measure, as well as the absence of international law regulating such experiments, the impact of which would be outside the borders of a given region or country.
Janus Pasztor, executive director of the Carnegie Climate Management Initiative, decried the idea of making clouds whiter because there are no international governance standards yet for solar geoengineering.
But he wasn’t surprised that someone would try.
Harvard University professor David Keith, who has been working on the subject since the late 1980s, said, “It doesn’t make sense as a deal or as a statement.”
But, he added, ‘the science suggests that the benefits may far outweigh the risks’, but the research community is weak and skeptical, and trust needs to be earned through a larger and more comprehensive research effort.
Ezman himself isn’t entirely comfortable with the idea of solar geoengineering being run by a private company. But he does not believe that international governments will cooperate and coordinate with each other when the time is right.
