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Our goose is cooked.

Despite humanity’s best half-hearted attempts at mitigating global warming, it appears as if we are “not on track to meet the 1.5° Celsius Paris Agreement goal.” Greenhouse gases are the bad guys in this apocalyptic drama and reducing these emissions is regarded as the best way to ensure we don’t all end up living on Venus II. But despite endless promises from world leaders, the UN has now said that perhaps it’s time to investigate plan B.

According to a new report by the UN, speculative technologies like reflecting our sun’s rays are perhaps one of the only viable options we have left.

With the world not responding to climate change urgently enough, a “speculative group of technologies” to reflect sunlight back away from the Earth have been getting more attention recently. This category of technologies is often called solar radiation modification (SRM) or more broadly solar geoengineering.

A panel of experts brought together by the UN advised that it may not be the best idea to reduce carbon emissions at this moment, but with current efforts proving less than effective, it’s time to start dusting off those mirrors.

It’s time for rigorous study of both the technologies and the potential international governance.

Ja, we agree. Whatever the talking heads in Paris shook their well-manicured hands on, is not working. We need to start thinking outside the box. This was emphasised in a letter signed by more than sixty scientists.

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It would however appear as if plan B might not be the most desirable choice either. The UN report notes that solar geoengineering “is the only known approach that could be used to cool the Earth within a few years’, it will come at a cost of tens of billions of dollars per year, per one degree Celsius of cooling.

It’s this cost that will most likely discourage most countries from getting too excited, as they would happily turn our planet into an oven before they divert funds from their military budgets. After all, the US U.S. military budget for 2021 was $800.67 Billion, and they still couldn’t stop a buffalo-wearing hillbilly from running amok in the US Capitol. For that money, they could have turned the Outback into Siberia by now. Anyways.

While the technology to inject large quantities of aerosols into the upper atmosphere does not exist today, it’s not seen as being terribly complicated: “No show-stopping technical hurdles have been identified,” the U.N. report said, and it could be “developed in under ten years.”

Scientists know that this approach can work, and have seen the proof in volcanic events that eject large quantities of aerosols into the upper atmosphere. The aerosols reflect sunlight back into space and a measurable decrease in temperature has been recorded after such incidents. But it is not that simple, and most likely to cause more damage than we may want to admit.

For example, sulfur dioxide is commonly proposed as an aerosol, but that practice would result in acid rain, the report warned. It also could increase ozone depletion.

Solar engineering is described by scientists as a ‘one-shot’ solution, but the idea of sunlight-reflection technology will have to be considered as a ‘phased approach to buying more time’.  The report optimistically states that the United Nations could be a possible leader in global discussions of solar geoengineering, with international cooperation and governance formulating a cohesive response.

Or they could just do what they usually do: Condemn global warming in the strongest possible terms and then go home hoping everyone will do the right thing.

Sorry about the bad news folks.

[source:cnbc]