I have to admit that I am not and don’t ever plan to be an experimental astronomer. Give me data from a telescope, and I’m happy. If you give me a telescope, I’ll just attract clouds. So really, I just want the data.

It is from the perspective of being an observational astronomer that I now say some experiments really feel like things we should not do even if we can. At least not yet.

In a new paper in Environmental Research Communications, an international team of researchers led by Wake Smith state that it is possible to refreeze the Earth’s polar regions with the injection of aerosols into just the right places in the stratosphere. These aerosols would then reflect incoming sunlight, preventing it from warming the Earth, and, if done correctly, would provide a cheap and effective way to reverse some of the effects of climate change.

I’m just worried about what would happen if there are factors we don’t understand. So, yeah, the experimentalists could cool our planet but maybe let’s not try until we’ve exhausted other options.

And maybe let’s work on understanding how other worlds like Mars may have died before we try to save the Earth.

More Information

IOP Publishing press release

Refreezing poles feasible and cheap, new study finds (EurekAlert)

“A subpolar-focused stratospheric aerosol injection deployment scenario,” Wake Smith et al., 2022 September 15, Environmental Research Communications