White House releases report on reflecting sunlight to cool the earth, no formal study planned now
Summary
On Friday, the White House released a federally mandated report on solar geoengineering, which is an umbrella term that describes methods of reflecting sunlight away from the earth to cool the atmosphere. Heat is a worthy adversary to mitigate — its often called "the silent killer" — but solar radiation management would not address other implications of climate change, like ocean acidification or air pollution. For example, allowing warming to proceed without solar radiation management might see more human death from extreme heat, but that would have to be compared against the health risks from more particulate matter in the air. The report from the White House says that a research agenda into solar radiation modification would sit next to "the foundational elements of greenhouse gas emissions mitigation and adaptation." Like the United States, the European Union also says that solar geoengineering is not a climate solution and says the current level of understanding of the implications of such interventions is not sufficient to deploy them.