There's a new “Spice” coming out of the UK, but this time, thankfully, it's not girls in brief clothing clutching microphones suggestively and singing bad pop songs. It's an acronym for an experiment that could help slow the warming of the Earth.
Scientists have long known that strong volcanic eruptions lower global temperatures, sometimes for years. So this has gotten a few of them to wonder: can we manufacture volcanoes to try and artificially lower global temperatures to stave off the worst effects from greenhouse gasses?
Scientists in the UK appear to be about to try, though there's no volcanoes involved – yet.
Instead, researchers will attempt to pump water up a hose suspended one kilometer off the ground underneath a dirigible, according to British newspaper the Telegraph.
Yes, it sounds a bit weird, but the researchers behind the project say it could be the first step in a giant geoengineering project that will take decades but might ultimately save the Earth. If the project works, the researchers envision using football-stadium-sized blimps, each with 20 kilometer-long hoses to pump light-scattering particles (though nothing as poisonous as that which volcanoes emit) high into the Earth's atmosphere with a final goal of reducing solar radiation and cooling off the planet.
The project, called SPICE (Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering) is coming out of the University of Bristol. The team is led by Dr. Matt Watson, who told the Telegraph, “This is a controversial and potentially alarming subject. We're going to try to pump tap water to a height of one kilometer through a pipe as a test of the technology.”
Phase one testing will take place on a disused airfield at Sculthorpe in north Norfolk using the kind of helium-filled blimp used today for advertising. The water will be forced up the pipe using an ordinary pressure pump available from hardware stores, researchers say. After the water is forced up the pipe, it will ultimately fall as artificial rain.
If the project goes as planned, say researchers, they think that ultimately by sending tons of material into the stratosphere from future “artificial volcanoes,” they can put enough reflective material around the earth to effect a global temperature drop of about two degrees Celsius. The scientists cite the example of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines which erupted violently in June 1991, subsequently reducing global temps by 0.5 degrees Celsius for two years.
It certainly won't be easy. Researchers warned that even if they are successful, a full-scale geoengineering project would be very tricky and would requirements governments around the world to coordinate efforts. The risks of such a project would need to be fully evaluated.
“We are still decades away from doing this and it's not simply a science decision,” said Watson. “There are ethical and governmental decisions around this that are huge. Just because we can do it doesn't mean that we have the right to do it.”
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Tracey Schelmetic is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Tracey's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Jennifer Russell
