The question arises– how can one possibly dim the Sun? The idea is to spray highly reflective particles, like sulfur, into the stratosphere to prevent the intense sun rays from entering the Earth’s atmosphere. In the Philippines, Mt. Pinatubo underwent a massive volcanic eruption in 1992, and the after-cooling significantly lowered temperatures in the region for two years. However, the project is far from implementation as Dan Schrag, the director of Harvard University Center for the Environment implied in an interview, as per The New Yorker.
Since 1880, The average global temperature on Earth has increased by 1.1 degrees C, with a rate of 0.15 degrees to 0.20 degrees C per decade, according to a report by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasizes the need to wind down worldwide emissions to half by 2030. The foremost method proposed to achieve this goal is by switching from fossil fuels to clean energy or renewable sources, like solar and wind.
Solar geoengineering is a highly simplified effort to revert the effects of CO2 emissions, that has occurred through hundreds of years to bring about global warming issues today. With that comparison, attempts to dim the sun using reflective particles or spraying aerosols shall administer the instant effects of rapid cooling. However, it is worth considering the aftermath of such an endeavor. Besides the billions of dollars estimated to be spent in the scheme, it could transform the sky into hazy or milky.
Also, the dimming of sunlight will certainly affect the photosynthesis process in plants globally and also damage the only-repairing ozone layer once again. The scheme could potentially unleash a chain of weather events, mimicking climate change overall. All in all, an official transition to clean energy resources will be affordable and less expensive to the environment. In light of that, electric vehicles (EVs) and solar-powered applications are on the rise in market trends, per a report by Deloitte. Therefore, full-fledged attempts to tackle the threatening aftermath of a heating planet are actively being looked into.
