Our Earth is heating up. Faced with the urgent need to act today, some are considering resorting to geoengineering. A solution considered almost a miracle. However, experts argue against this idea. They call for a ban on geoengineering, including solar geoengineering.
You will also be interested
[EN VIDÉO] Global warming: our planet in unknown territory In the preliminary version – which only covers the first nine months of 2021 – of its annual State of the Global Climate report, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirms the trend of global warming. For the first time, the bar of a rise of 1°C compared to pre-industrial averages has been crossed over the period of the last twenty years. But the report above all highlights the many extreme weather phenomena that have occurred in 2021 and their consequences for the planet and for humanity. © World Meteorological Organization
The climate geoengineering : the warmer our planet, the more we talk about it. Like what “we could do… if we keep doing nothing”. This is how David Keith, physicist at Havard University presented the subject. It was in 2007 already. Few things seem to have changed since then, except that scientists tend more and more to warn against the risks of this type of project. At the start of the week again, more than 60 experts expressed their views on this subject.
In an open letter, they call for “immediate action by governments, the United Nations and any other actor to prevent the normalization of geoengineering [solaire notamment, ndlr] as a climate policy option”. According to them, even if theinjection of sulfur particles in our atmosphere could actually reflect a good deal of solar radiation back into space, the consequences could outweigh the benefits. So they ask for a “international non-use agreement”.
Bad profit-risk
Experts point out that “the deployment of geoengineering solar energy cannot be governed globally in an equitable, inclusive and effective way”. They rely in particular on the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to recall that, even if Southern Africa could thus see its risk of drought decrease, the operation would weaken the monsoons summer in Africa and Asia, and would dry up the Amazon.
Experts are also worried about the one he describes as “terminal shock”. It would occur if the injection, once implemented, should finally be stopped abruptly. Temperatures on Earth would then rise very rapidly. Especially since, with geoengineering solutions, the other risk is that not only do they not act on the causes of global warming — the emissions of greenhouse gas –, but that they also risk discouraging governments from doing their best to achieve the carbon neutrality.
Interested in what you just read?