Some scientists want to fight global warming by making clouds thinner, and by dimming the sun. Both ideas are real geoengineering proposals.
🏛️ Must Know
Two Geoengineering Proposals to Cool the Planet
- Cirrus Cloud Thinning Seeding high cirrus clouds with ice-nucleating particles makes them thinner, letting more heat escape into space.
- Stratospheric Aerosol Injection Injecting sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere reflects incoming sunlight back to space, copying the cooling effect of a major volcanic eruption.
- Shared Goal Both techniques are proposed specifically to reduce global warming, not to control rainfall, cyclones, or solar wind.
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📘 Good to Know
How the Two Techniques Actually Interact
- A Volcanic Analogy Stratospheric aerosol injection is directly modeled on eruptions like Mount Pinatubo in 1991, which cooled global temperatures for about a year.
- One Effect Feeds the Other Higher stratospheric aerosol loading can itself reduce ice crystal formation, thinning cirrus clouds as a side effect of sulphate injection.
- A Real Risk Too many ice-nucleating particles can backfire, producing thicker cirrus clouds that trap more heat instead of less.
📝 Previous Year Questions
UPSC CSP 2019 — The Context for These Techniques
- UPSC 2019 Cirrus cloud thinning and stratospheric sulphate aerosol injection are both suggested in the context of reducing global warming. See UPSC CSP 2019 GS Paper I, Q25. View this question.
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Great to Know
🌟 Great to Know
Why Scientists Remain Cautious
- Ozone Risk Injecting particles into the stratosphere may deplete ozone, working against a separate environmental goal.
- No Fix for the Cause Neither technique removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Both only mask warming’s effects while emissions continue.
- Connects to Other PYQ Facts These proposals sit alongside geological carbon sequestration in the same broader toolkit of climate intervention strategies.
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