Once considered taboo, discussions about solar geoengineering are growing louder.Many worry that the idea of solar geoengineering—mainly strategies to cool the planet by shooting sun-reflecting particles into the atmosphere—will distract from efforts to reduce carbon emissions and thus the underlying cause of climate change. Meanwhile, others argue that we should start thinking about how these strategies might be governed, and a few say it’s time to study solar geoengineering in earnest to understand its hazards. As the debate rages on, one group is pushing forward with outdoor experiments possibly later this year. Risky as these techniques may be, society may one day have to wrestle with whether to implement them.
