Dimming the Sun Could Be Climate Science’s Trolley Problem
In 1991, Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines, injecting nearly 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the sky. This sudden burst of gas in the atmosphere reflected away sunlight from Earth and lowered the planet’s average temperature by about 1 degree Fahrenheit for a little longer than a year. If humanity wants to turn down the worst effects of global warming, then it simply needs to do that, with planes, indefinitely.
That is the idea, at least, of solar geoengineering. To its supporters, mimicking a large volcanic eruption is an ethical necessity, a way to soften the blow of climate change. “Perhaps the best reason to take cooling seriously is that benefits seem likely to go to the poorest countries,” in last year. “Poor people tend to live in hot places.”
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