By Charley Cameron / Source: Inhabitat

A cautious report from the National Academy of Scientists suggests that it is now time to look into purposely re-engineering Earth’s climate in an effort to combat global warming. It’s an alarming concept, and one that was once considered to be pretty extreme—but as climate change worsens, the NAS warns that we ought to experiment on a small scale, and not for the reasons one might expect.

The theories behind hacking the Earth’s climate are surprisingly simple: the most popular concept is that of solar radiation management. SRM is a technique by which we could, in theory, minimize the sun’s impact on earth by injecting sulfur pollution high up into the air. The sulfur would mimic the behaviors of ashes from volcanic eruptions, which have already been shown to dampen the sun’s effect on Earth.

As Phys.org explained earlier this year: “A major volcanic eruption like that of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 can cause worldwide cooling of about 0.1C for about two or three years.” If the effects were replicated on a larger scale, then there is the potential that we could slow global warming as we work towards reductions in carbon emissions. And to some it’s quite appealing—SRM could be done for just a few billion dollars, potentially cheaper and more efficient than working out unilateral reductions in carbon emissions.

Read more @ Inhabitat