Of all the different possible methods to combat anthropogenic climate change conceived of so far, among the least studied is climate engineering.
An umbrella term for large-scale projects designed to disrupt the Earth's carbon cycle or radiation balance, climate engineering has only relatively recently been included in the conversation about methods that could mitigate the harm caused by carbon emissions.
Research into various climate-engineering projects has grown, but according to Nadine Mengis, who until March 2019 was a Horizon Postdoctoral Fellow at Concordia’s Matthews Climate Lab, too few of the studies produced to date have looked at the large-scale side effects these projects would have on interconnected variables.
In a new paper published in the journal Climatic Change, Mengis examines possible disruptions on relationships between a large number of what she calls “Earth system variables” — the aspects of the climate that are not the direct target of the engineering projects will nonetheless be affected by them — caused by three different climate-engineering methods.
Read more at Concordia University
Image: Nadine Mengis, who until March 2019 was a Horizon Postdoctoral Fellow at Concordia (Credit: Courtesy Nadine Mengis)