Geoengineering May Have Global Impacts, Study Shows

According to a new analysis released by experts at the University of Bristol, in the United Kingdom, it would appear that geoengineering our planet would have implications for all countries, implications that some of these nations may be unwilling to accept.

For example, making the oceans reflect sunlight back into space would cool our planet, but arguments would most likely ensue as to how much light each nation involved in the project should handle.

And there is also the issue of countries that don't want to be included in the scheme, or that oppose it altogether. As the effects would be global, these countries would feel them too.

There are also a host of moral and ethical issues and implications to be considered, such as for example who gets to decide whether we should move ahead with engineering the climate.

Additionally, in past investigations on the potential effects of geoengineering on climate change have shown that some areas of the world would still remain too hot, regardless of the scheme's overall success.

Conversely, other areas would cool too much. An added disadvantage is the fact that rainfall patterns would shift as well, and that a lot less rain would fall from the skies altogether.

Then there are those who don't even want to hear about messing about with the planet's climate. Critics to geoengineering schemes say that the world is an ecosystem that has been carefully balanced by billions of years of evolution.

They add that humans should take measures to reduce their carbon dioxide output, as well as avoid releasing other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It's only in this manner that global warming can be mitigated, they add.

In the new studies, the British researchers looked at the potential influences that geoengineering scenarios of different intensities may have on the world.

Using a comprehensive climate model developed by the UK Met Office, the researchers looked at how these scenarios would influence various regions of the world.

The results of their work appear in the latest issue of the esteemed scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters, in a paper called “Assessing the Regional Disparities in Geoengineering Impacts.”

“If there is a large amount of global warming in the future there would be no strength of geoengineering that would be best for everyone: some may be better off without any geoengineering while others may do better with a large amount,” says expert Pete Irbine.

“Our simulations indicate that it might be possible to identify a strength of geoengineering capable of meeting multiple targets, such as maintaining a stable mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet and cooling global climate, but without reducing global precipitation below normal amounts or exposing significant fractions of the Earth to unusual climate conditions, concludes paper coauthor Dan Lunt.