Description
The increasingly visible consequences of climate change are leading scientists and policymakers to consider the extreme measure of trying to cool global temperatures by spraying reflective particles into the stratosphere to partially block out incoming solar radiation, a proposed technology called Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI). There are significant risks and many unknowns in this fragmented area of scientific research, but one of the underexamined problems of SAI is that using the proposed technology to rapidly cool the planet is that the political appeal for its development and use may run well ahead of scientific research on its safety and efficacy. This is, in part, because political commitments to constraining warming to 1.5c are increasingly out of reach without some kind of substantial technological intervention in the absence of rapid emissions reductions . As calls for the declaration of a ’climate emergency’ increase, the turn to an ‘emergency’ response may become politically appealing sooner rather than later even if there remain outstanding uncertainties about its risks and benefits.
