Scientists Are Trying To Dim The Sun and Cool Earth Using Technology. Is It Worth The Risk?

Scientists are trying to dim the Sun and cool Earth using
technology. Is it worth the risk?

Between 25000 and 50000 species become extinct every year due to the effect of global warming, our forests
are burning, our towns are flooding, the marine animals are being boiled alive but to most of us none of this
seems to matter because as long as global warming is not affecting us directly it remains a non-issue or a
distant issue. We talk about global warming at forums and conferences, we write about it on twitter but we do
very little to tackle it ourselves. We all know that Global Warming can be controlled by simply making changes
to our day-to-day lives, by opting for public transport, reducing carbon emissions, switching to cleaner fuels,
and reducing deforestation. You know the drill: the objective is to change our existing lifestyle in order to
prevent global warming, but others believe that instead of committing to our own human efforts, we may
change the composition of the atmosphere by dampening the sun's rays using solar geoengineering technology.
The sun's rays might be dimmed naturally or as a result of a natural disaster. The events of 1991 serve as a good
example in this regard. The debris from Mount Pinatubo's eruption in the Philippines in 1991 decreased Earth's
average surface temperature for more than a year, but attempting to do so intentionally can be disastrous. We
would need to inject reflective particles such as aerosol into the atmosphere in large quantities to reflect some
of the incoming solar energy back into space which is known as solar radiation modification or SRM. Scientists
are also thinking of making the clouds over the ocean more reflective, brighter by artificially injecting salt
water from the ocean up into those clouds.
All of these ways would reverse global warming back into space and make the earth cooler. Is this policy choice,
however, even worth considering? We think that the disadvantages outweigh its benefits. Dimming the sun's
rays could disrupt monsoons in south asia and western africa which means it would damage our rain-fed crops,
it could hit food security, deprive millions of food and force more people to go to bed hungry. Dimming the
sun's rays could also dry the amazon. If a government moves forward to do something like this, the effort
cannot be contained within that individual country which is participating but will have global implications and
affect other parts of the world too. How is dimming the sun even a solution? The only approach to combat
global warming is to treat the problem's core cause, to reduce greenhouse emissions rather than masking it
with a layer of reflecting particles that dims the sun's rays. We should be done with tampering the earth, we've
cut forests, built houses and factories on them, we've cut mangroves, built artificial islands, polluted the rivers
and land, we burned fossil fuels, coal, oil, and gas, but now it's all playing catch up with us, and we want to
change the dynamics of the atmosphere. The earth isn't a guinea pig or a test subject on which we can continue
to experiment, and there's no reason to lower the sun's light, just think about what happened a few months
back. We discovered during the lockdown that our planet possesses the mystical potential to heal itself.. One
month after the lockdown the air was cleaner, water was flowing once again and clogged rivers, the birds were
back, the animals were back and there were less pollutants. If one lockdown could transform our surroundings
imagine what a lifetime of conscious choices can do. We have big goals and very little time. We must turn to
technology for real solutions. We must use science to make the transition to greener fuel smoother and to
decrease pressure on agricultural land, to find alternatives to livestock farming. Tampering with the
atmosphere all over again is not an option, dimming the sun's rays sounds like a frankenstein solution. It’s time
we shift emphasis from technological solutions to climate change & also focus on the 'Human Dimension’ .
After all it's all of our responsibility to leave this planet in a better state than we found it for future generations.
-Shambhavi and Vedanshi

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Scientists are trying to dim the Sun and cool Earth using

technology. Is it worth the risk?

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