Summary: While it would take decades to significantly reduce greenhouse gases by simply ceasing our dependence on fossil-fuels, iron seeding or other geo-engineering schemes to reduce gases could result in instant gratification. All these solutions are highly controversial though as there is no guarantee they will work. There is actually a chance they could make things worse by accelerating climate change or destroying natural habitats. Still, there is nothing stopping countries or companies from trying them. Some existing environmental laws might apply, but their governing power is weak. Iron seeding is dumping loads of iron into the polar ocean. Other geo-engineering schemes include orbital mirrors to reflect the sun, pumping reflective particles into the atmosphere, modifying microbes to eat methane, or feeding plankton with nutrients pumped from the bottom of the sea.
My Take: I was very excited when I saw this article. It is good to see someone out there talking about developing technology that takes action to reduce greenhouse gases and not just talking about cutting our emissions. I am certainly for cutting our emission but I am also very pro-developing technology to work hand and hand with a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. Not surprisingly, this article touches on how unreliable the current methods are and I think just further proves we need to concentrate money and energy towards these solutions. The last point this article makes, which was concerning the regulation of such ventures, is very important as well. The step that probably needs to happen soon is the IPCC setting some guidelines and sanctioning someone, somewhere to enforce them.
Check out the article here
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