Melting point: could ‘cloud brightening’ slow the thawing of the Arctic?

  • Leader
    November 30, 2022 3:50 PM CST

    Melting point: could ‘cloud brightening’ slow the thawing of the Arctic?

    Interesting concept, but will it work?

    Two suggestions for geoengineering the poles’ climate have drawn serious attention and have been the subject of theoretical modelling. The most popular and perhaps advanced of these is what is known as stratospheric aerosol injection, in which sulphur dioxide would be released into the stratosphere to gather around the poles. The idea is that the aerosols will have a similar effect to the ash clouds from volcanoes, which reach a high altitude and reflect sunlight, bringing down temperatures on Earth.

    The argument against:

    There are many critics of the proposal, who point out that sulphur dioxide, which is associated with acid rain, asthma and chronic bronchitis, is itself environmentally damaging and there is no guarantee that its effects would be limited to the poles or, indeed, what its long-term effects might be. There has been some very limited field work examining aerosol effects, but it has been too restricted to offer any definitive answers.

    What do you think?

  • Leader
    December 1, 2022 9:41 AM CST

    The beauty of science is you start out small, prove your hypothesis and then move forward to create your experiment on a larger scale. At least they were able to estimate what it would take on a large scale to release sulphur dioxide by how many planes needed and the cost. The other consideration were the indigenous people and their health. The polar ice traps everything.

    If they started cloud brightening and it worked, then they would have to continue this, to prevent unstable amounts of sulphur dioxide from affecting the people. Perhaps better methods will be discovered in decades to come. I'll compare this to like being on medication or treating for hair loss. Everything is great until you quit the treatment, then you revert back to the problem....this is the same, though I'd have to disagree with the aspirin and penicillin analogy because, they both are essentially temporary unless you figure out the cause of the pain or infection....though I would likely acquiesce to the penicillin as it does treat a bacterial inflection at it's source.