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Media articles related to climate interventions.

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Five geoengineering trials the UK is funding to combat global warming

03 June 2025, Robert Chris, Climate interventions

The UK government recently announced plans to fund five small-scale trials related to geoengineering. Of the 21 projects being funded by Aria, the UK government's Advanced Research and Invention Agency, five are likely to involve small-scale outdoor experiments. They account for about half the £57 million program. Three of the projects concern brightening clouds over the ocean, one explores a method of refreezing the Arctic and the fifth looks at a specific detail of injecting reflective aerosols into the stratosphere. The other projects concern how to govern these technologies and model and monitor their effects. They could also yield insights vital for securing the public and governmental support necessary if these technologies are ever to be deployed on a much larger scale.

How can 'geoengineering' help save us from the climate emergency?

02 June 2025, Gwynne Dyer, www.saltwire.com

The only way to hold the heat down in the short term is ‘geoengineering’: direct intervention in the atmosphere to reflect more sunlight back into space and thereby cool the planet, writes Gwynne Dyer

Three ways to cool Earth by pulling carbon from the sky

23 April 2025, Jeff Tollefson, www.nature.com

With the world set to blow past its temperature targets, efforts are growing to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The cheapest way to draw carbon out of the atmosphere is to grow more forests, but trees are not necessarily a permanent solution because they might be cut down or burn in fires, which are a growing threat. Many scientists and industrialists therefore focus on more permanent — and more expensive — solutions. Also available as a podcast: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01650-7

Industry

Can geoengineering plans save glaciers and slow sea level rise?

05 February 2025, Douglas Fox, www.sciencenews.org

Controversial plans to curb the melting of some West Antarctic glaciers pose big challenges.

Ice sheets and glaciers -> Ice sheet stabilization via seabed curtains

Saving the Frozen Arctic, Part II – Expert Assessment of Climate Solutions for the Arctic

04 February 2025, GRID-Arendal and UArctic, www.uarctic.org

While concerns about the risks and drawbacks of climate interventions are well-founded, few systematic studies have assessed the proposed options and their potential environmental, social, and economic consequences. To address this gap, UArctic, GRID-Arendal, and the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland released Frozen Arctic: Horizon Scan of Interventions to Slow Down, Halt, and Reverse the Effects of Climate Change in the Arctic and Northern Regions in October 2023. The team behind the initiative is now embarking on the most ambitious phase of the project. Every proposed intervention will undergo an open, high-quality, transparent, and non-partisan peer-review process. Expert groups from a range of disciplines—including atmospheric, terrestrial, ocean, and ecosystem sciences, as well as economics, society, business, law, and governance—will lead the reviews.

Glacier Intervention Research Isn’t Just for Glaciologists

09 January 2025, Kenneth D. Mankoff, Christina Hulbe, Sławek Tulaczyk, Francesca Marzatico and Tiffany Morrison , eos.org

Prospects for mitigating sea level rise by slowing flows of glacial ice into the ocean are worthy of research, but this work must involve all rights holders and stakeholders.

Ice sheets and glaciers

As ‘Doomsday’ Glacier Melts, Can an Artificial Barrier Save It?

26 August 2024, Fred Pearce, e360.yale.edu

Relatively warm ocean currents are weakening the base of Antarctica’s enormous Thwaites Glacier, whose demise could raise sea levels by as much as 7 feet. To separate the ice from those warmer ocean waters, scientists have put forward an audacious plan to erect a massive underwater curtain.

Land-based measures -> Increasing glacier thickness by local artificial snow production

Will we be ready? Geoengineering policy lags far behind pace of climate change

26 August 2024, Charles Pekow, news.mongabay.com

The history of geoengineering policymaking has been piecemeal over past decades, with U.N. bodies failing to create or implement rigorous binding international regulatory frameworks for geoengineering management, and with academia and think tanks delivering reports and recommendations that offer little definitive detailed regulatory guidance.

Sea ice & icebergs -> Increasing glacier thickness by local artificial snow production

This simple farming technique can capture carbon for thousands of years

22 August 2024, Matt Simon, grist.org

Across the world, farmers are turning waste biomass into biochar, improving soils, boosting yields, and creating a new source of income.

Ice sheets and glaciers -> Stabilizing glaciers by cloud seeding

Cloud brightening over oceans may stave off climate change, but with risk

12 August 2024, Sean Mowbray, news.mongabay.com

Marine cloud brightening (MCB), the spraying of sea salt aerosols or other fine particles into clouds to artificially brighten them and increase the sun’s reflectivity, is a proposed strategy to ward off the full effects of climate change.

Industry -> Ice sheet stabilization via seabed curtains

Geoengineering gains momentum, but governance is lacking, critics say

01 August 2024, Sean Mowbray, news.mongabay.com

As the climate crisis advances, geoengineering — intentionally modifying Earth systems on a large scale to cool the planet or store additional carbon — is increasingly a hot topic. But an intense debate is raging as to how to govern research and deployment of these deeply contentious strategies.

Atmosphere / solar radiation -> Artificial glaciers

Don’t even study it: Geoengineering research hits societal roadblocks

24 July 2024, Jeremy Hance, news.mongabay.com

As climate change accelerates, some scientists are calling for more field research into solar geoengineering concepts. However, these ideas are running into opposition from other researchers, some governments and the public.

Ice sheets and glaciers -> Ice sheet stabilization via seabed curtains

Sun block: The promise and peril of solar geoengineering

23 July 2024, Jeremy Hance, news.mongabay.com

Recent research and interest, especially from the U.S. government, has pushed a solar geoengineering idea known as SAI, or stratospheric aerosol injection, to the top of lists of potential ideas to cool the planet. SAI would use fleets of high-flying aircraft to disperse sunlight-reflecting particles, including sulfates, into the stratosphere.

Land-based measures -> Sea ice breakup in winter

The pollution paradox: How cleaning up smog drives ocean warming

05 June 2024, Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360, grist.org

New research indicates that the decline in smog particles from China’s air cleanups caused the recent extreme heat waves in the Pacific.

Ice sheets and glaciers -> Glacier albedo increase

Pollution Paradox: How Cleaning Up Smog Drives Ocean Warming

28 May 2024, Fred Pearce, e360.yale.edu

New research indicates that the decline in smog particles from China’s air cleanups caused the recent extreme heat waves in the Pacific. Scientists are grappling with the fact that reducing such pollution, while essential for public health, is also heating the atmosphere.

Oceans & marine -> Glacier albedo increase

Report ranks 60+ ideas, including geoengineering, to save the Arctic

21 May 2024, Jeremy Hance, news.mongabay.com

Given that the serious impacts of climate change are rapidly escalating, some scientists, backed up increasingly by governments, are looking into extreme measures such as geoengineering to slow the rate of change.

Atmosphere / solar radiation -> Pumping water onto ice sheets

Scientists Are Trying to Coax the Ocean to Absorb More CO2

22 April 2024, Andrew S. Lewis, e360.yale.edu

For billions of years, the oceans have been absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. Now, to boost that drawdown, startup companies and researchers are experimenting with ‘marine carbon dioxide removal’ by altering the chemistry of the ocean and sinking biomass to the seafloor.

Industry -> Ice sheet stabilization via seabed curtains

Pumped up: will a Dutch startup’s plan to restore Arctic sea-ice work?

27 February 2024, Senay Boztas, www.theguardian.com

As the Arctic warms, devastating the climate and ecosystems, an old idea used to create skating rinks could be deployed to restore melting ice caps, despite scepticism from some experts

Ice sheets and glaciers -> Increasing glacier thickness by local artificial snow production

Switzerland calls on UN to explore possibility of solar geoengineering

22 February 2024, Jonathan Watts , www.theguardian.com

Proposal focuses on technique that fills atmosphere with particles, reflecting part of sun’s heat and light back into space

Sea ice & icebergs -> Increasing humidity around glaciers and ice sheets

How air pollution delayed a surge in extreme rain

22 February 2024, Jake Bittle, grist.org

Aerosol pollutants have masked the effects of global warming. Without them, the U.S. is about to get a lot wetter.

Industry -> Stabilizing glaciers by cloud seeding

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"Five geoengineering trials the UK is funding to combat global warming"