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From The Globe and Mail - Technology RSS feed:
There's no easy fix for climate change. And if we reach the brink of disaster, even the most far-out proposals may start looking reasonable.
After spending the last 40 years trying to convince the world that global warming is real, the last thing climate scientists want to do is convey the impression there's an easy fix.
Nevertheless, as politicians dither and fossil fuels continue to burn, researchers are increasingly looking seriously at the idea of engineering the planet - geoengineering - to stave off the more extreme effects. A radical, if costly, intervention may be the only way to avert a planet-wide catastrophe.
Most of the many schemes being studied aim either to reduce sunlight to cool the planet or to capture and store carbon dioxide to halt the impact of fossil-fuel use. All have risks and costs, and side effects cannot be predicted or managed with certainty.
Without a doubt, scientists say, it is far better to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions than have to deal with the consequences. In 2006, former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern rang up the cost of climate change to the world economy at trillions of dollars over the next decade.
But if there's no choice, even the costliest proposals may look reasonable as ways to buy crucial time. "The hope is that we could buy a few decades to develop new energy sources," says John Latham, of the University of Manchester.
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