Could bouncing the sun’s heat back into space help solve the climate crisis?
07 August 2025, Seán Duke, www.irishtimes.com
As global temperatures climb and extreme weather events become more frequent, scientists are exploring the use of solar geoengineering, a set of different measures all geared towards reflecting sunlight and cooling the Earth. “The world is making progress on emissions,” says solar geoengineering researcher Dr Pete Irvine of the University of Chicago, “but even if every country meets its current pledges, we are still tracking towards more than 2.5 degrees of warming by century’s end.” That level of warming could lead to severe impacts such as loss of biodiversity, health crises and unchecked polar melting. In addition to solar geoengineering, enhanced weathering and direct carbon capture are two other technologies actively being researched to help bring down the temperature.