--- title: "Scientists Want to Fight Climate Change by Dimming the Sun" description: "## Sum of the Particles" date: "2018-11-26" modified: "2018-11-26" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/geoengineering-climate-change" categories: - "Climate Change" - "Environment" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "climate change" - "geoengineering" - "matthew watson" - "the digest" --- # Scientists Want to Fight Climate Change by Dimming the Sun ![To halt climate change, some scientists suggest geoengineering our own planet by releasing particles into the stratosphere that will deflect sunlight.]() *\Image: NASA\* ## Sum of the Particles The long-term outlook on climate change is bleak. Last month, a United Nations report [found that]() the international community's current efforts are unlikely to stave off catastrophic global fallout. That gloomy consensus is driving some researchers to investigate moonshot solutions, including an idea so extreme that it has divided scientific community: geoengineering our own planet by releasing particles into the stratosphere that will deflect sunlight and prevent future warming. ## Backup Plan A [new study]() by researchers from Harvard and Yale, published Friday in the journal *Environmental Research Letters*, found that building a fleet of high-altitude planes to release sunlight-blocking particles could cost just $2 or $3 billion per year — a drop in the bucket compared to the [tens of trillions of dollars]() in climate-related damages the UN report predicted. The report's authors found that the effort could be pulled off by about 100 specially-designed aircraft, which would eventually make a total of about 60,000 flights per year. That's not an enormous program, they wrote, but it is substantial enough that a rogue nation wouldn't be able to pull off something comparable in secret. ## Risky Business Many scientists [oppose geoengineering](). They [argue that]() it could have unintended consequences and that it treats the symptoms of climate changes instead of the causes. But other researchers say it's imperative to investigate the effects of programs like the sunlight-blocking particles before governments start their own geoengineering programs to fight climate change. "Unfortunately, climate change is dire enough for us to have to consider drastic action," University of Bristol Earth scientist Matthew Watson, who was not an author of the paper, [told *The Guardian*](). "Some argue against researching these ideas but personally I think that is a mistake. There may come a time, in a future not so far away, where it would be immoral not to intervene." **READ MORE:** [Solar Geoengineering Could be ‘Remarkably Inexpensive’ – Report]() \[*The Guardian*\] ***More on solar geoengineering:** [The World’s Largest Solar Geoengineering Study Is Launching in the U.S.]()* ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()