Should we reflect the sunlight to cool the planet?

Should we reflect sunlight to cool the planet?

Well in 1991, a mountain by the name Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted becoming the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century. Its ash plume shot up past the atmosphere and into the stratosphere dispersing a layer of aerosol particles around the whole world.

All those particles formed a sort of solar umbrella that reflected sunlight away from the earth and also caused global temperatures to drop drastically by about half a degree Celsius for almost two years. It's not the first massive volcanic eruption to cool global temperatures.

El Chichón volcano lowered temperatures by a similar amount in 1982 as did other major eruptions over the past century.

Today, scientists have been exploring whether we could replicate this same phenomenon to fight global warming in the world.Using a technology called solar geoengineering. A lot of supporters tend to say it's a tool we need to seriously explore as climate change worsens.

Understanding a lot more about these things that could potentially reduce suffering. That's worth a lot.

However, critics believe the technology's risks outweigh its rewards and shouldn't be a response to fighting global warming. More technology is sometimes not always better. There are a lot of things that have been invented that many people would wish had never been invented. So which one is it?

To understand the benefits and risks of solar geoengineering, I spoke to several scientists, lawyers, indigenous leaders with strong opinions on both sides. With stakes as high the survival of the human race on earth…should we exploring solace geoengineering?

There’s this one thing all scientists tend to agree which are: Solar geoengineering could cool down the planet. Reflecting sunlight away from the earth as well as stops heat from getting trapped in our atmosphere. And we could do that by injecting aerosols into the stratosphere like volcanoes can do.Well that's the most commonly researched approach.

Other scientists are also looking into trying to brighten marine clouds so they're better at reflecting the sun.

And other potential methods include reflective shields in outer space. All these initiatives are still in different stages of the research phase but in order for all of us to deploy these technologies and get large scale cooling effects, we'd need to interfere with our complex climate on a very massive scale.

One main reason that makes most scientists support solar geoengineering is the fact that we're currently on a pretty dire path. Our emissions, mainly carbon dioxide, keep rising.There's really no question we must cut emissions in the long run. But even if you cut emissions to zero tomorrow...that does not still eliminate climate risk. It only means you stop the climate risk getting worse because the climate risk comes from accumulated emissions.

World organizations focused on climate are now starting to make assessments and recommendations. I really can't tell you which one is exactly right but the only thing I can tell you is that each and every single person I spoke to on either side of the issue cares deeply about our future on this planet. And maybe that tension between them is actually a good thing... because while it doesn't make our path forward clear...it can make us more thoughtful and scrupulous about how to solve this giant mess we are in at the moment.