Spraying aerosols and sucking carbon out of the air would bring down temperatures, yes. But the unintended consequences of geoengineering could be enormous.
. It is, perhaps alarmingly, easier to imagine a rogue state from going it alone, or an eccentric billionaire taking it upon themselves.
And if getting political consensus before deployment might be difficult, imagine what would happen afterward if things go wrong. Consider a scenario in which the world somehow agrees on an SAI program, and cooperates on rolling it out. All seems to be going smoothly, until a hurricane or drought strikes a particular country, whose political leadership blames it on geoengineering.
“Most of the focus has been on: Would it work? Do we have the technology to do it? Do we think we could actually bring down temperatures worldwide?” says Georgetown University global change biologist Colin Carlson, lead author of the study. “There's been a lot less focus on the kind of questions that we're asking in this study, which is: OK, well, how would this affect people?”
Malaria transmission won’t go up or down uniformly across the planet as temperatures rise, according to the researchers’ modeling. They found that cooling caused by geoengineering would put millions of additional people in West Africa at risk of contracting malaria, but in East Africa, it would actually shorten the transmission season, puttingpeople at risk.
Any climate problems that had been suppressed would resurge, because, like an aspirin, SRM only brings down the fever—it doesn’t eliminate the underlying malady. One 2018
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Sesame Street's “Scary” Episode Surfaces on Social MediaIt wasn't a bad dream: that lost 'scary' episode of Sesame Street has leaked online.
Read more »
Green Lantern's Power Ring Just Became The Ultimate Anti-Superman WeaponIn tomorrow's Batman/Superman World's Finest 4, Superman and Batman are taking on a mind-controlled Green Lantern, whose powers have been magically amplified to make him a weapon against Kal-El.
Read more »
Campaigners propose food alliance to reduce climate impact of farmingFood campaigners are in talks with France, Germany and the UK about launching a sustainable farming alliance that would get countries to commit to science-based targets to tackle climate change
Read more »
Milky Way mega-map and UK science turmoilThe latest science news, in brief.
Read more »