Conca opined in November 2023 that we’re failing to decarbonize the world in any significant way. Global greenhouse gas emissions are still rising and appear on track to continue rising until at least 2040—the result of the energizing of the developing world. It takes about 3,000 kilowatt-hours per person per year to lift someone out of poverty, and coal is the only energy source that can be built in a poor country that has little infrastructure. On top of that, oil is the only viable option for transportation in these same poor countries. So it’s not surprising that coal and oil use are increasing globally right alongside carbon emissions. When faced with saving the planet or saving your family, family wins every time.
So what do we do? Do we have a Plan B? Yeah, but you’re not going to like it! It’s called solar geoengineering, and it’s a process by which we would deliberately reduce the effects of heat-trapping greenhouse gases by reflecting a small fraction of sunlight back into space. It sounds strange, but it isn’t as odd—or as difficult—as it might seem. And we know that it works because it happens every time a huge volcano erupts.
We’ve been studying those for over 100 years. Some serious scientific mojo has been applied to this idea at universities around the world. Solar Geo-engineering Research Program, a part of the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University, is a research initiative devoted entirely
to the science, technology, and public policy of solar geoengineering.
There are several technologies that could be applied to this approach, but the most effective, cheapest, and quickest involves injecting aerosols (superfine droplets or particulates) into the stratosphere, where they would scatter some sunlight back to space, thus cooling the planet by reducing the amount of heat that enters the lower atmosphere and gets trapped by carbon dioxide. Because the impacts of climate change will hit the world’s most vulnerable populations hardest, who lack the resources to move or adapt, there’s actually a strong ethical case for research into solar geoengineering.
Dr. Conca concluded that fossil fuel use is climbing as fast as ever worldwide, mainly in the developing world. And we in the developed world have failed at helping them access alternative energy sources like nuclear, just as we have failed to replace coal with nuclear in the developed world.
Like many epic choices about our future, it would be wise to do our due diligence before we are forced into radical actions. A big question, of course, is whose hand would be on the thermostat?
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