Terraforming Earth with Sulfur

Humanity has been operating something of an experiment over the past few decades, with its wild emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The globe has been rising in temperature levels at an exponential rate, and the trends are only expected to continue. Terraforming the earth via stratospheric sulfur injections is a proposed solution, to cool the Earth as carbon emissions heat it up. We may be able to stop global warming in a similar process that we used to create it.

While clean energy solutions have been proposed to stave off carbon emissions, they have thus far not reached the scale required to so. Carbon emissions show little sign of slowing down. If clean energy initiatives fail to overcome carbon emissions, sulfur injection may be the necessary next step. Sulfur aerosols would be pumped into the stratosphere, scattering radiation so that less radiation reaches the troposphere. Since the troposphere is where the bulk of the Earth’s weather phenomena occurs, this would mean a cooler Earth (1). The benefits of sulfur injections would be widespread. Polar ice caps would cease to melt. Plants would take in more CO2, causing stronger growth.

While methods of sulfur injections have not been tested on mass scale, an example of this concept was the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, which cooled the Earth by half a degree over several years (1). Furthermore, some scientists and inventors have tried and failed at patents and small scale experiments. The most notable attempt was from 2009, where a group of Russian scientists sprayed aerosols from a helicopter 200 meters up and reported reduced sunlight on the surface (3). While sulfur injections have potential, it is important to be skeptical toward proposed methods of implementation.

There are flaws to the idea of using sulfur geoengineering to solve the climate crisis. Sulfur being in the stratosphere would leave the sky a dull gray, removing the blue sky (2). There is also potential for satellite signal interference, ozone depletion, and reduction in efficiency of solar energy production (2). Sulfur would also only enable humanity to accelerate carbon production. Due to increasingly excess carbon in the atmosphere, halting sulfur emissions into the stratosphere would cause a catastrophic acceleration in the rate of global warming, 5-10 times what we currently see (2). Furthermore, while sulfur might work to cool down the Earth, it would do little to address the issues of deforestation, pollution, and damage to ocean life.

There are no clean answers to the climate crisis, and all possible solutions must be taken into account. While there is likelihood that clean energy solutions may be the way of escape, it is possible that a drastic measure like sulfur injection may be necessary in the coming future. While not an ideal solution, it is still solution that is able to cool the Earth down. It should be pursued, especially for an eventuality in which all other options have been exhausted.

Sources:

Stratospheric sulfur injection | geoengineering | Britannica

Stratospheric Sulfur Geoengineering - Benefits and Risks · Weather Modification History

What is geoengineering—and why should you care? | MIT Technology Review