The planet-hackers are coming










 

NOAA
  Click for gallery: This
map charts the thickness of sulfate aerosols, which may have a cooling effect. Click on the image for more on geoengineering.



Should we put more pollutants into the air to keep Earth’s temperature down? How about covering polar ice with reflective panels to cut down on melting? Or putting a giant umbrella in space to shade the planet?


Some of the ideas for easing Earth’s warming trend may sound crazy – but in a newly published book titled “Hack the Planet,” Eli Kintisch says scientists may have no choice but to give them a try.


“The only thing crazier than geoengineering is what we’re doing now to the atmosphere by continuing to dump carbon dioxide into it,” he told me.

…(read more)