An overlooked tool in fighting climate change is enhancing biodiversity to maximize the ability of ecosystems to store carbon.
Geoengineering proposes to take much more proactive measures such as injecting aerosol into the stratosphere to increase solar reflection.
2 These studies include the Royal Society report mentioned in (1) and two reports from the US Na-tional Research Council: Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration (2015), and Climate Intervention: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth (2015), The National Acadamies Press, Washington, D.C. 182 8 Geoengineering Counteracting approached a tipping point—a threshold beyond which the Earth would enter a vastly different climate state—then emergency measures would likely garner more serious attention. 1.1 Types of Climate Intervention Geoengineering methods fall under two classes: 1) Carbon dioxide removal (CDR), which removes CO2 from the atmosphere, and 2) solar radiation management (SRM), which reflects sunlight back into space. Box 8.1: Exercise to examine the mass scales involved in one type of enhanced chemical weathering6 185 Geoengineering 8 CO2 Removal 2.2 Ocean Fertilization Another of Nature’s ways of removing CO2 from the atmosphere is through photosynthesis by phytoplankton at the surface of the ocean (Figure 8.2).
In our civilization’s effort to slow down and stop Climate Change and reverse Global Warming, geoengineering should not be considered the only solution, but rather an important part of a comprehensive, integrated, international program that mitigates the effects of Global Warming, restores our biosphere and addresses the root causes of Climate Change (i.e., the use of fossil fuels and carbon dioxide emissions, human population growth, consumptive lifestyles, unsustainable practices, degradation of natural ecosystems, etc.). An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty [Masson-Delmotte, V., P. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty [Masson-Delmotte, V., P.
For example, geoengineering includes the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (also called Carbon Dioxide Removal – CDR) through methods such as direct air capture and storage, ocean iron fertilization, or ocean alkalinity enhancement. These activities are referred to as **Solar Geoengineering** or **Solar Radiation Modification (SRM).** Most proposed solar radiation modification techniques involve adding material to the atmosphere to increase the amount of incoming sunlight reflected back to space. Marine solar radiation management (mSRM) techniques, on the other hand, involve adding materials to ocean waters, sea ice, or the lower atmosphere to increase the amount of solar radiation reflected at or near the ocean's surface to limit surface warming or sea ice melt. * *Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB)* – adding particles, such as sea spray, to the lower atmosphere (near the surface) to increase the reflectivity of clouds over the ocean. Another subset of geoengineering activities intends to cool the Earth by intentionally modifying the concentration of certain gases in the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide.
# Article Nature-based and geo-engineering climate mitigation technologies: Public acceptance and security prospects. Public attitudes strongly favor nature-based climate solutions like reforestation. Sociodemographic factors like education and region shape climate-tech perceptions. Logistic regression models show public support for varied climate mitigation methods. Climate change requires mitigation approaches, from nature-based to experimental geoengineering. We examined public attitudes toward six strategies—reforestation in previously forested areas, afforestation in new terrains, direct CO2 capture with underground storage, biomass energy with CO2 capture, stratospheric sulfate aerosols, and orbital mirrors—via a representative Czech survey (*N* = 3,007). Results show strong favor for reforestation and afforestation due to ecological benefits and long-term promise; sulfate aerosols and orbital mirrors face skepticism. Older respondents favored biomass-based carbon capture but less so certain high-tech solutions. Our findings highlight the importance of policies aligned with diverse public views, ensuring both established and novel measures are harmonized into an effective climate mitigation strategy. These results indicate demographic contexts shape acceptance of climate interventions.
However, research shows that using solar geoengineering could indirectly lower the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere by stemming permafrost melt, reducing energy-sector emissions and causing changes to the carbon-cycle feedback. Aerosol injection could have an edge on other proposed forms of solar geoengineering because it would not require a large technological leap to become a reality, Jones says:. These brighter clouds would reflect away more sunlight, says Prof Douglas MacMartin, an engineering researcher from Cornell University, who contributed to the US House of Representatives’ hearing on geoengineering. Earlier this month, MacMartin, Keith and Prof Katharine Ricke, a climate scientist from the University of California, San Diego, published a research paper exploring how solar geoengineering – via releasing aerosols into the stratosphere – could be used as part of an “overall strategy” for limiting global warming to 1.5C, which is the aspirational target of the Paris Agreement. However, the researchers point out that using solar geoengineering to hold global warming to 1.5C would not have the same environmental effect as reaching the target using mitigation.
# Geoengineering 101. One characteristic that is common to the geoengineering approach is the belief that we can use technology to reverse or detain climate change without having to cut carbon emissions by eliminating fossil fuel use. ## **Geoengineering Experiments**. Several dangerous geoengineering experiments are already underway, with potentially dire consequences for the earth. In May 2020, a small group of Australian geoengineers3 carried out a risky geoengineering technique – brightening clouds to reflect solar energy back into space – and presented it as a plan to save the Great Barrier Reef. The experiment contravenes the UN Convention on Biodiversity, which in 2010, established a moratorium on geoengineering activities until “a global, transparent and effective control and regulatory mechanisms… in accordance with the precautionary approach can be put in place.”5. The proposed Ice911 Project wants to experiment on Inupiaq and Gwich’n territories in the Arctic region by polluting the ice and oceans with tiny glass beads.