Nov 16
Nobel Prize Chemist, Paul Crutzen presented a novel idea for dealing with anthropogenic climate change: pump smog into the stratosphere.
The scheme would work like this: capture sulfur dioxide from industrial facilities, use balloons to carry the sulfites high above the earth’s surface where they would then be dispersed. Essentially, this would imitate the effects of such natural processes as volcanic eruptions which also emit sulfur areosols. Sulfur dioxide acts to reflect solar radiation from reaching the earth, thus mitigating against the insulation effects of carbon concentration in the atmosphere.
Crutzen deliberately wants to shock policymakers into action with this proposal, since its sustainability is suspect. SO2 concentration can result in both acid rain and can contribute to ozone depletion.
This type of scheme represents a glaring example of using a “technological fix” for a problem that could more reasonably be addressed by reducing carbon emissions.
