What is geoengineering?
Deliberately cooling the climate is an unsettling idea
ON APRIL 2ND a contraption resembling a snow machine on the deck of the USS Hornet, a defunct aircraft-carrier moored in San Francisco Bay, began producing a mist of salty aerosol particles. The scientific collaboration behind the project, the Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) programme, led by the University of Washington, is investigating whether such aerosols might help to slow climate change through a form of “geoengineering”. What does this term mean—and why is it so controversial?
From the April 20th 2024 edition
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