As we continue to face a growing number of concerns regarding the melting of the polar ice caps, a collection of some of the top climate scientists in the world came together to test the viability of proposed solutions.
What's happening?
Polar regions are heating up at a faster rate than the rest of the world. This has led to the accelerated melting of glaciers and ice sheets in the Arctic. Many experts fear that this may trigger irreversible impacts on fragile ecosystems and rising sea levels around the globe, a process that has already started. In an effort to prevent potential widespread devastation, several geoengineering projects have been proposed to try to delay or even stop Arctic ice loss.
In a recent study published in the journal Frontiers, a team of climate researchers took a closer look at several of the most controversial geoengineering concepts. The researchers assessed the practicality, cost, risks, environmental harm, scalability, governance, and ethical implications of each of these concepts.
Despite a wide range of diverse proposals, none of the approaches included in the study were determined to be a viable option over the next several decades. In fact, the concepts all had the potential to pose a significant danger to the environment.
Martin Siegert, a glaciologist at the University of Exeter and lead author of the study, spoke regarding the significance of the research.
"I think it's fair to say that the promotion of some of these ideas have not provided a sense of just how difficult it would be," Siegert said, per Inside Climate News. "So what you get is the maximizing of the potential of doing it and minimizing the challenge of it ever happening. It becomes a sort of distorted, one-sided proposition."
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Why are unrealistic geoengineering concepts important?
Stratospheric aerosol injection has become one of the most commonly proposed geoengineering methods to date. The idea is to cool the Earth by injecting reflective particles into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight back into space, mimicking natural volcanic cooling. However, like many other proposed concepts, SAI could lead to unintended side effects that may worsen droughts in vulnerable regions.
Other concepts explored by the team of researchers included the construction of sea walls to reduce ocean warmth-induced ice-sheet melting and mass loss; and the scattering of hollow glass beads over first-year Arctic sea ice to increase its albedo, or solar reflectiveness.
According to Siegert, we can't improve conditions in the Arctic without addressing the largest factor in global heating.
"We have to avoid giving people false hope by suggesting that climate change can be fixed without cutting carbon emissions, which is the only real solution," Seigert said.
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Yes — everywhere 👏 What's being done about global carbon pollution?
2024 was confirmed as the hottest year on record, continuing a trend of rapidly rising global temperatures over the last decade. The rise in temperatures has been driven by human activities and elevated carbon pollution. In fact, global carbon pollution increased by nearly 1% since 2023, according to Nature.
Efforts to reduce carbon pollution have centered around a global push toward net-zero pledges. This also includes a shift to the use of renewable energy sources, improving energy efficiency, and adopting sustainable practices in transportation, agriculture, and waste management.
While geoengineering concepts attempt to find proactive solutions to rising global temperatures, their impracticality limits the support they may receive.
"It's not that we wanted to do this study, but there is a very small minority that is really pushing this," said James Kirkham, a climate scientist and co-author of the study, per Inside Climate News.
As noted by Kirkham, most of these concepts are not supported by actual climate scientists. "The thing that really wound us up was that they were pitching these fringe ideas as if they had the backing of the entire research community," added Kirkham.
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