Humans have given it a low-key name: geoengineering. But it's nothing less than changing the Earth — the air, the clouds, the oceans — so that we can hold off on global warming's most devastating effects until we cut our carbon pollution.
Tinkering with skies, clouds and oceans is risky, but maybe less risky than global warming
Some of it sounds like mad science, maybe the master plan of a Bond villain. One idea resembles a plot from .
Humans have given it a low-key name: geoengineering. But it's nothing less than changing the Earth — the air, the clouds, the oceans — so that we can hold off on global warming's most devastating effects until we cut our carbon pollution.
"Make no mistake: This is a really big deal," Daniel Schrag, director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, told CBC Radio's The Current, specifically referring to solar geoengineering. "We're talking about engineering the climate intentionally for the whole planet."
Here are some of the big ideas that have been discussed, how they work and what they might mean for the planet.
Block the sun
This is The Simpsons one, though the proposal isn't to block the sun entirely like the evil Mr. Burns did in one popular episode.
Instead, picture this: Customized
