Climate Repair
If it gets too hot
If we press ahead with reducing our CO2 emissions to zero, and can start to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere using DACCS and by creating and storing liquid fuel, hopefully that will be enough, but if it does not work quickly enough, we may have to consider other options. We need to plan for these now.
There are several research groups looking at possibilities for climate repair. The more global warming we get before reversing our production of CO2 into extracting CO2 from the atmosphere, the more likely we are to have to try one of these methods.
Though they may all have the potential to work, they are clearly untried and basically untestable, until we go for it. As a result many ideas cannot be actually put into effect because they require global agreements, and naturally many countries do not want to take any risks.
For example, if we look back historically some massive volcanic eruptions have caused temporary global cooling for a few years after the event because the amount of material thrown up into the upper atmosphere has blocked out the sun’s heat for a while. Some methods depend on this and consider pumping or blasting material up to the upper atmosphere to cause the same effect.
For further information on other possible approaches: