{"id":439753,"date":"2026-04-15T13:24:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=439753"},"modified":"2026-04-15T17:17:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T00:17:01","slug":"why-dimming-the-sun-is-the-new-climate-fix-and-why-its-a-terrible-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=439753","title":{"rendered":"Why Dimming the Sun Is the New Climate Fix \u2014 And Why It’s a Terrible Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article spotlights the accelerating interest in solar geoengineering (or solar radiation management\/SRM) \u2014 large-scale, deliberate efforts to reflect sunlight away from Earth to counteract global warming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some scientists, particularly at Cambridge University\u2019s Centre for Climate Repair and backed by UK government funding via the Advanced Research and Innovation Agency (ARIA, ~\u00a350\u201360 million), are described as \u201cracing\u201d to develop and test these technologies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI): <\/strong>Releasing reflective particles (sulfates, calcium carbonate, or other aerosols) into the upper atmosphere to mimic volcanic cooling (e.g., Mount Pinatubo 1991).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB):<\/strong> Spraying fine seawater mist to make low-level clouds more reflective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smaller-scale ideas like thickening Arctic ice or cirrus cloud thinning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research remains mostly in modeling, lab work, and small-scale studies. No large-scale deployment exists.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A standout quote from Dr. Hugh Hunt (deputy director at Cambridge): \u201cWhen you run the numbers, there\u2019s just no way to avoid global warming without geoengineering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The piece acknowledges risks, skepticism, and governance issues but presents the work as a pragmatic response to stalled progress on mitigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The framing is urgent: emissions cuts alone aren\u2019t happening fast enough, so \u201cPlan B\u201d interventions like dimming the sun are moving from fringe theory to active experimentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This \u201crace to dim the sun\u201d feels like the flip side of Gary Abernathy\u2019s column on renewables finally standing on their own without subsidies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both reflect frustration with decades of policy-heavy approaches that haven\u2019t delivered reliable, scalable results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of doubling down on market-driven energy (nuclear, natural gas for AI\/data centers, advanced storage), some pivot to planetary-scale experiments with unknown side effects and massive governance questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics argue it\u2019s a symptom of the same mindset: when the preferred \u201cgreen transition\u201d stalls, reach for bigger interventions rather than pragmatic, dispatchable solutions that already work.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

_____________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climate change scientists racing to dim the\u00a0sun<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geoengineering schemes may hold the key to reversing global warming, but risks abound and many remain sceptical<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ian McEwan\u2019s recent novel,\u00a0What We Can Know<\/em>, is set in a semi-underwater Britain in the year 2119. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few decades on from a climate catastrophe, things are pretty dire. If you want to get from the Chilterns to the South Downs, you have to travel by boat. The Telegraph<\/a> has the story.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What saves humanity from total wipeout is, ironically enough, nuclear explosions in the Middle East. Detonations in the desert in the 2040s send gigatons of dust and sand into the upper atmosphere, where they begin to filter out the sun\u2019s harsh light \u2013 and reverse global warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the graves of millions,\u00a0the earth began to cool<\/a>,\u201d our narrator tells us. Over time, the cooling encourages \u201ca new spirit of optimism\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As sci-fi as all this may sound, the scenario is grounded in scientific fact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What McEwan is describing is a particularly brutal form of geoengineering \u2013 that is, modification on a planetary level \u2013 and specifically,\u00a0\u201csolar radiation modification\u201d,<\/em>\u00a0or SRM<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, turning the dimmer switch on the sun. The good news is we don\u2019t need a nuclear apocalypse to do this. It is, theoretically, entirely possible for humans to cool the planet by reflecting more sunlight back into space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you run the numbers, there\u2019s just\u00a0no way to avoid global warming\u00a0without\u00a0<\/em>geoengineering<\/a>,\u201d says Dr Hugh Hunt, deputy director of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University, who has been studying this for the best part of three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIncreasingly, that\u2019s what anyone who really sits down and\u00a0thinks<\/em>\u00a0about it comes to believe. If you stop the sun\u2019s rays from reaching the surface of the Earth, it\u2019s kind of obvious, it\u2019s cooler \u2013 as it is on a cloudy day.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He points to the so-called \u201cnapkin\u201d diagram, which charts predicted temperature rises in various scenarios: business-as-usual, mitigation (i.e., the outcome if we switch to renewables), carbon removal and SRM. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mitigation helps, but it is only with SRM that the temperature actually falls. Again, theoretically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proposed techniques vary from the surprisingly lo-fi \u2013 painting city rooftops white to reflect more sunlight, say \u2013 to the\u00a0Thunderbirds<\/em>-esque. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some have suggested using balloons to send artificial clouds made of aerosols into the sky; others have proposed\u00a0fleets of planes circling the Earth and spraying sulphur dioxide aerosols<\/a>\u00a0into the upper atmosphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, a US-Israeli start-up named Stardust, whose co-founder and chief executive, Yanai Yedvab, was once the deputy chief scientist at the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, announced it had raised $60 million to develop a \u201cfull-stack solution\u201d to climate change, promising \u201ca safe, measurable, adjustable, and fully reversible system to stabilise Earth\u2019s temperature\u201d (in other words, the deployment of particles, and bells-and-whistles monitoring). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another US start-up, Make Sunsets, founded by two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, is banking on\u00a0making artificial clouds<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To say that these companies are controversial is an understatement. Indeed, shortly after making its announcement, Stardust was accused by the Center of International Environmental Law of \u201caccelerating a reckless race that threatens to put humanity on a path of no return to perpetual dependency on this extreme technology\u201d.<\/em>\u00a0It comes with risks: acid rain, or climate becoming\u00a0a new vector of warfare<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read full story here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

_____________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Risks and Challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uneven regional impacts: <\/strong>Cooling might not be uniform. It could alter precipitation patterns (e.g., weaken monsoons in Asia or Africa), shift storm tracks, affect agriculture, or disrupt ecosystems in ways that harm some regions more than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Termination shock:<\/strong> If deployment stops suddenly (due to conflict, technical failure, or politics), temperatures could rebound rapidly \u2014 potentially faster and more damaging than gradual warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ozone depletion, acid rain, and other side effects:<\/strong> Sulfate aerosols in particular raise concerns about stratospheric chemistry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governance and geopolitics:<\/strong> Who controls the “global thermostat”? Unilateral action by one country, company, or actor is theoretically possible, raising risks of international conflict. Attribution of weather events (droughts, floods) to SRM would be scientifically and politically contentious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moral hazard:<\/strong> Critics argue it could reduce urgency for emissions reductions, creating a dangerous distraction or “techno-fix” mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real-world practicality:<\/strong> A 2025 Columbia University study emphasized that SAI is far harder, costlier, and more unpredictable in practice than computer models suggest, due to engineering, delivery systems, maintenance, and atmospheric dynamics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This \u201crace to dim the sun\u201d feels like the flip side of Gary Abernathy\u2019s column on renewables finally standing on their own without subsidies. Both reflect frustration with decades of policy-heavy approaches that haven\u2019t delivered reliable, scalable results. Instead of doubling down on market-driven energy (nuclear, natural gas for AI\/data centers, advanced storage), some pivot to planetary-scale experiments with unknown side effects and massive governance questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":439755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691818087,691822209,691834976,691842286,691818473],"class_list":["post-439753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-climate-change","tag-global-warming","tag-solar-radiation-management-srm","tag-solar-radiation-modification-srm","tag-sulphur-dioxide-aerosols","tag-weather","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Why-Dimming-the-Sun-Is-the-New-Climate-Fix-%E2%80%94-And-Why-Its-a-Terrible-Idea.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1QoN","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":377903,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=377903","url_meta":{"origin":439753,"position":0},"title":"Scientists Who Want To Play At Being\u00a0God","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/10\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"What they are talking about is solar radiation modification (SRM), also known as solar geoengineering, aka dimming the sun.","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-co%e2%82%82"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-135.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-135.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-135.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-135.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":276456,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=276456","url_meta":{"origin":439753,"position":1},"title":"Dimming The Sun \u2013 The Real Global Warming Emergency","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/31\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The world wide web is perfectly designed to spread despair, gloom, despondency and the opinions of all those who don\u2019t know what they\u2019re talking about. 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