A group of international scientists led by Cornell is – more rigorously and systematically than ever before – evaluating if and how the stratosphere could be made just a little bit “brighter,” reflecting more incoming sunlight so that an ever-warming Earth maintains its cool.
Their work was published Aug. 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Solar radiation modification – or solar geoengineering, as it is sometimes called – is a potential climate change mitigation strategy that involves injecting sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere so more sunlight bounces off the Earth’s atmosphere. In conjunction with other strategies, like cutting greenhouse gas emissions, this could help keep the planet’s temperature from rising too high.
“Even if we act aggressively on climate change, it will still get worse,” said lead author Doug MacMartin, senior researcher and lecturer in the College of Engineering and a faculty fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. “We face difficult decisions in the coming decades on whether or not to complement other climate-change mitigation strategies with methods for reflecting sunlight.”
Read more at Cornell University
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