Scientists make radical earth-saving proposals

Scientists in the UK have come up with a radical new way to slow down global warming: filling the sky with fake clouds.

Brian Launder from the University of Manchester and Michael Thompson from Cambridge University have written a number of papers together, arguing that extreme and potentially dangerous measures to tackle climate change must be given serious trials.

They argue that the controversial practice of geoengineering, deliberating changing the global environment, must be considered if the harshest effects of climate change are to be prevented.

One of Launder and Thompson’s proposals involves injecting sulphur dioxide into the upper atmosphere above the sea to protect the earth from the sun’s rays.

Previous research estimates that deflecting just 2% of the sun’s light from the earth in the right places would be enough to mitigate the warmth created by carbon emissions.

If this is the case then just 1 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide per year would need to be scattered across an area of 10 million square kilometres.

Other solutions from the duo include seeding the oceans with iron to promote algae growth, and the worldwide use of synthetic carbon neutral fuels.

Algae absorb atmospheric CO2 as it grows, and when it dies it takes the CO2 with it to the bottom of the sea.

In other research published recently scientists from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change warned that current government policies to tackle climate change may not limit temperature increases to two degrees Centigrade.