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  • WORLD VIEW

Solar geoengineering is scary — that’s why we should research it

Research on blocking sunlight needs a dose of realpolitik.
  1. Katharine Ricke

    1. Katharine Ricke is a professor of climate science and policy at the School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Scripps Instution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego.

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In April 2022, the start-up company Make Sunsets launched balloons into the stratosphere to release sulfur dioxide to make the atmosphere more reflective. This and other solar-geoengineering techniques aim to bounce solar radiation into space to partially counteract climate change. Make Sunsets’s experiments were not public knowledge until MIT Technology Review published a piece on them last December (see go.nature.com/3xvcb).

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Nature 614, 391 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00413-6

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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