by Derrick Broze, Activist Post:
Geoengineering is a controversial science of manipulating the climate for the stated purpose of fighting man-made climate change. There are several types of geoengineering, including Solar Radiation Management (SRM) or solar geoengineering. Stratospheric aerosol injection, or SAI, is a specific solar geoengineering practice which involves spraying aerosols into the sky in an attempt to deflect the sun’s rays. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is currently developing a five-year research plan on solar geoengineering.
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The White House document focuses on “atmospheric–based approaches” to SRM, specifically SAI and marine cloud brightening (MCB). The report focused on these specific geoengineering approaches because of their “greater near-term feasibility” and the “greater governance challenges of atmospheric approaches” relating to the “significant trans-boundary impacts.” In other words, because these methods involve spraying particles from planes in the sky they will impact people regardless of where the lines on the map are drawn.
The Biden White House notes that if US science agencies began supporting a “large-scale program” of SRM they “could consider engaging in appropriate international cooperation.” This international cooperation, the White House argues, could promote knowledge, research needs and results, resource savings, best practices, and reduce the prospect of “irresponsible experimentation and/or deployment.”
The White House also notes that any “large–scale, multi–agency Federal research program” into SRM would be coordinated by the US Global Change Research Program, which focuses on “understanding the forces shaping the global environment, both human and natural, and their impacts on society.”
The Biden Administration also acknowledges concerns that governments or non-state actors could “move independently to develop and deploy SRM technologies“. The report calls for “identifying optimal international frameworks for cooperation, monitoring, deterrence, and response.” More than likely, such a framework would come out of the United Nations.
Overall, the Biden admin calls for further research into the scientific and societal implications of SRM to better inform decisions to come. However, the White House also said “there are no plans underway to establish a comprehensive research program focused on solar radiation modification.”
The White House’s own report was inspired by the 2021 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report, Reflecting Sunlight: Recommendations for Solar Geoengineering Research and Research Governance.
That report concluded:
“it is the committee’s judgment that, subject to appropriate governance and oversight, outdoor experimentation could feasibly be pursued in a balanced manner” which would illicit “critical observations” but would be “small enough in scale to limit impacts”.
The authors of the NASEM report claim that such “small-scale” experiments would produce real-world impacts at a scale smaller than other “deliberate human activities that are freely undertaken by society.” The authors are also aware that advancing outdoor geoengineering programs too quickly could “induce public objections and subsequent delays or restrictions.”
Meanwhile, the White House report admitted that “previous research has raised concerns about possible shifts in sky coloration from SAI, and resulting psychological impacts, which would merit study.” This is a reference to the work of Ben Kravitz of the Carnegie Institution for Science which showed that releasing sulphate aerosols could decrease the amount of sunlight that hits the ground by 20% and make the sky appear more hazy. Ultimately, this haze could result in the loss of blue skies.
The White House report also states there is potential for SRM to be “maintained on timescales of decades, if not centuries.” This could be an acknowledgement that although proponents of geoengineering hail it as the solution to climate change and sustaining life, research indicates that geoengineering could actually have the reverse effect of heating Earth.
According to a 2013 study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, if geoengineering programs were started and then suddenly halted the planet could see an immediate rise in temperatures, particularly over land. The study, titled “The impact of abrupt suspension of solar radiation management,” seems to indicate that once you begin geoengineering you cannot suspend the programs without causing the very problem you were seeking to resolve.
