Scientists consider controversial attempt to stop global warming

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – In 2006, Al Gore called climate change “an inconvenient truth,” declaring that our very ability to live is what is at stake.

Flash forward a decade and the National Academy of Sciences in the US is suggesting we’ve gone so far down the road with man-made, global warming that we should at least be considering an extremely controversial idea to cool the planet.

It was once considered a fringe concept, re-engineering the climate by purposely pumping sulphur pollution high into the atmosphere, creating an artificial cloud to reflect the sun’s heat.

In a first-of-its-kind report, the Academy of Sciences says we’ve gotten to the point where the idea should be studied — global warming has worsened, some countries may act on the idea unilaterally and research is needed to calculate the consequences.

Creating an artificial cloud to manage solar radiation could be a relatively cheap, effective and very quick way of cooling the planet but scientists concede there’s a lot they don’t know and there could be dangerous side effects in trying to mimic the natural effect of large volcanic eruptions.

This is the first time a government-associated science panel has talked about controlled small-scale outdoor tests of the artificial cloud concept.

Panel chair Marcia McNutt, editor of the journal Science and former director of the US Geological Survey, said the public should read this report “and say, ‘This is downright scary.’ And they should say, ‘If this is our Hail Mary, what a scary, scary place we are in.’”

The panel did favour technology to suck carbon dioxide from the air and bury it underground. But that would be costly and take decades to work.

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