Scientists advise EU to halt solar geoengineering

Credit: BBC

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Would the EU’s climate obsessives like to pay compensation if or when their amateur attempts to interfere with nature, based on beliefs derived from poorly performing climate models, went horribly wrong?
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Scientific advisers to the European Commission are calling for a moratorium across the EU on efforts to artificially cool Earth through solar geoengineering, says The Verge.

That includes controversial technologies used to reflect sunlight back into space, primarily by sending reflective particles into the atmosphere or by brightening clouds.

Proponents argue that this can help in the fight against climate change, especially as planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions continue to climb. But small-scale experiments have triggered backlash over concerns that these technologies could do more harm than good.

The European Commission asked its Group of Chief Scientific Advisors (GCSA) and European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) to write up their opinions on solar geoengineering, which were published today alongside a report synthesizing what little we know about how these technologies might work.

There’s “insufficient scientific evidence” to show that solar geoengineering can actually prevent climate change, says the opinion written by the GCSA.

“Given the currently very high levels of scientific and technical uncertainty … as well as the potential harmful uses, we advocate for a moratorium on all large-scale [solar geoengineering] experimentation and deployment,” writes the EGE in the second highly anticipated opinion.

Solar geoengineering merely attempts to tackle “the symptoms rather than the root causes of climate change,” according to the GCSA. [Talkshop comment – the imagined ‘root causes’].
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The European Commission should assess new research on solar geoengineering every five to 10 years, its scientific advisers say.

“These technologies do show some promise, but they are far from mature,” Ekaterina Zaharieva, commissioner for startups, research, and innovation, said in a statement today. “Research must continue, but the opinion of the European Group on Ethics shows research must be rigorous and ethical, and it must take full account of the possible range of direct and indirect effects.”

Full article here.
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Image credit: BBC