Calls for a moratorium on efforts to artificially cool Earth are growing.

There’s ‘insufficient scientific evidence’ backing efforts to artificially cool down the planet, according to the European Commission’s scientific advisers.

Scientific advisers to the European Commission are calling for a moratorium across the EU on efforts to artificially cool Earth through solar geoengineering. That includes controversial technologies used to reflect sunlight back into space, primarily by sending reflective particles into the atmosphere or by brightening clouds.

  • Tiresia@slrpnk.net
    2·
    7 days ago

    This is unlikely to be sufficient to explain the spike in global sea surface temperature in recent weeks, which is around 0.2C above the prior record for this time of year.

    - the article

    According to the article, the drop in SO2 emissions may explain 0.02-0.035 degrees of warming in 2023, and even when it has all phased out of the atmosphere it’ll be 0.03-0.06 degrees of warming.

    As the representative of the ethics committee that gave the advice that was summarised into the headline we’re discussing was quoted as saying in the OOP article:

    These technologies do show some promise, but they are far from mature. Research must continue, but the opinion of the European Group on Ethics shows research must be rigorous and ethical, and it must take full account of the possible range of direct and indirect effects. It is also important that the scientific evidence on risks and opportunities of solar radiation modification research and deployment is periodically assessed.