The wrong solutions...

It is distressing to read some of the new media coverage about how we can deal with the prospect of climate change on the planet. There is a small but growing cadre of people who believe that we should begin to put attention to "geo-engineering" to counter the effects of increased carbon concentrations in the atmosphere. The BBC recently had an article discussing a new Royal Society report about the feasibility of some of these solutions, in which the Royal Society concludes that some of the most sci-fi-like engineering solutions are "technically feasible."

There are many proposals out there, ranging from what has become "accepted" like carbon capture and storage to more "out-there" ones like shooting reflective ions into the atmosphere to bounce sunlight back off the planet to having mirrors in space to injecting sea salt into the atmosphere.

Yes, you read all of those options correctly.

All I can say is... "what!?!?"

This is a classic case of human hubris, where we feel like we can outsmart nature and create these fantastic technological solutions to man-made problems. Yet, the truth of the matter is that nature's complexity is well-beyond our capacity for understanding or technical abilities. We simply have no idea about what would work or not, and more dangerously, we have no idea of what impacts these "solutions" would actually have. We cannot model these things, because we not only do not know the values of the variables in the model, we don't even know which variables there are. There is no doubt in my mind that we will end up creating greater problems than carbon and climate change with any of these proposed technological solutions.

A growing number of people though are embracing these ideas, and even the Royal Society - although pushing for reductions in carbon first - has jumped on the bandwagon and advocates for funding and further research in this area. Laughable really, when the real solution to the problem is actually so simple and "easy" compared to the technological solutions; stop emitting greenhouse gases and change the way that we live. The reality is that we are not faced with an unsolvable scientific problem. We are faced with an immensely embedded political problem. If the nations of the world could just come to an agreement on how to cut greenhouse gases, we wouldn't need any of these other outlandish proposals. However, as is often the case, it is easier for governments to throw tons of money into new technologies than it is for them to make the common sense choice that may require general sacrifices from everyone on the globe.

I'm all for thinking about climate change adaptation, but please, let's be real here. The answer to reversing climate change is simple - stop emitting greenhouse gases. Figuring out how to cool the planet down while continuing to dump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is not just the easy way out, it is ridiculous and a sad commentary on our current societies.