Full Title: Climate Intervention, Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth
Author(s): National Academy of Sciences
Publisher(s): National Academy of Sciences
Publication Date: February 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
CLIMATE INTERVENTION IS NO SUBSTITUTE for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions and adaptation efforts aimed at reducing the negative consequences of climate change. However, as our planetenters a period of changing climate never before experienced in recorded human history, interest is growing in the potential for deliberate intervention in the climate system to counter climate change. This study assessesthe potential impacts, benefits, and costs of two different proposed classes of climate intervention: (1) carbon dioxide removal and (2) albedo modification (reflecting sunlight). Carbon dioxide removal strategies address a key driver of climate change, but research is needed to fully assess if any of these technologies could be appropriate for large-scale deployment. Albedo modification strategies could rapidly cool the planet’s surface but pose envi- ronmental and other risks that are not well understood and therefore should not be deployed at climate-altering scales; more research is needed to determine if albedo modification approaches could be viable in the future.