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OKIsItJustMe

(19,937 posts)
Wed Jan 25, 2012, 02:34 PM Jan 2012

Injecting sulfate particles into stratosphere won’t fully offset climate change

http://www.washington.edu/news/articles/injecting-sulfate-particles-into-stratosphere-won2019t-fully-offset-climate-change
[font face=Times, Serif]Jan. 25, 2012
[font size=5]Injecting sulfate particles into stratosphere won’t fully offset climate change[/font]

By Vince Stricherz
News and Information

[font size=3]As the reality and the impact of climate warming have become clearer in the last decade, researchers have looked for possible engineering solutions – such as removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or directing the sun’s heat away from Earth – to help offset rising temperatures.

New University of Washington research demonstrates that one suggested method, injecting sulfate particles into the stratosphere, would likely achieve only part of the desired effect, and could carry serious, if unintended, consequences.

The lower atmosphere already contains tiny sulfate and sea salt particles, called aerosols, that reflect energy from the sun into space. Some have suggested injecting sulfate particles directly into the stratosphere to enhance the effect, and also to reduce the rate of future warming that would result from continued increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide.



“There is no way to keep the climate the way it is now. Later this century, you would not be able to recreate present-day Earth just by adding sulfate aerosols to the atmosphere,” McCusker said.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00183.1
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