British academics have spent £5.4 million ($8.5 million) in the last five years on taxpayer-funded ‘geoengineering’ projects to stop the effects of climate change.
Dr Matthew Watson, lead investigator of a £1.8million ($2.8 million) project to pump chemicals into the atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays, said using such technologies will become inevitable if humanity fails to stop global warming.
Dr Watson from Bristol University said we should be wary of interfering with nature on a planetary scale - known as geoengineering. It involves changing our planet to counteract effects of climate change. Earth is shown here pictured from space
The Bristol University academic has already suffered a major setback, when much-trumpeted plans to send a huge balloon into the air to test his scheme was scrapped over a patenting dispute.
Yesterday he admitted that despite the millions already spent on research, scientists are still decades from seeing their dreams turn into reality.
And he said they could indeed be dangerous.
The schemes could see rainfall patterns change, droughts spread across the world and the ozone layer damaged beyond repair.
‘Personally, this stuff terrifies me,’ he said.
‘Whilst it is clear that temperatures could be reduced during deployment, the potential for misstep is considerable.
‘By identifying risks, we hope to contribute to the evidence base around geoengineering that will determine whether deployment, in the face of the threat of climate change, has the capacity to do more good than harm.’
But he added that it would be ‘unethical’ not to try the technology.
‘If we ever deploy these technologies it will be the closest indication yet that we've failed as planetary stewards.
‘But there is a point at which not deploying some technologies would be unethical.
‘It's a watershed for our relationship with the Earth and with nature. It fundamentally changes the way seven billion people are going to interact with the world, and I'm not sure the system is going to be controllable in the way we want.’
Three taxpayer-funded schemes will today publish the results of five years of research into geoengineering.
Each report will confirm that we are many years away from seeing any project work outside the laboratory.
One of the touted projects includes spraying low-level clouds with sea salt to make them reflective to the sun; another would pump aerosols or sulphur particles into the atmosphere to disperse sunlight; and others would see greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide sucked out of the air to reduce global warming.
Credit to dailymail.co.uk
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2849201/Scientist-admits-terrified-technology-developed-stop-global-warming.html#ixzz3KDgpzm8H
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