Atmosphere Ocean Science Colloquium

Solar Geoengineering - What Do (And Don't) We Know?

Speaker: Douglas Mcmartin, Caltech

Location: Warren Weaver Hall 1302

Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2015, 3:30 p.m.

Synopsis:

Lack of progress in cutting greenhouse gas emissions has prompted a debate over solar geoengineering. Reflecting some sunlight back to space, e.g. by adding aerosols to the stratosphere, would cool the planet and might reduce some of the risks associated with climate change. However, this introduces many other concerns, form physical climate-system effects, to ecosystem responses, to societal feedbacks. I will talk about progress and challenges in evaluating solar geoengineering towards better assessing this risk-risk trade-off.