vlaze.com

The Chinese government promised and delivered a rain free opening ceremony to the delight of thousands in attendance and millions watching around the world. During the rainy season how did they do this? Simple, they seeding storm clouds with iodide before they blew into the capital city causing the rain to fall long before they reached Bejing.

Sound extreme? When it comes to technology triumphing over climate this is just the tip of the iceberg. Welcome to the 21st century and welcome to one of the hottest environmental debates about the planet right now, geoengineering.

Geoengineering is defined as the deliberate modification of Earth's environment on a large scale "to suit human needs and promote habitability"

Many geoengineering ideas sound like plots straight from 60’s sci-fi films such as launching mirrors into orbit to reflect the suns rays away from earth to seeding the ocean with iron oxide to to decrease greenhouse gases.

Now that a vast majority of the scientific community has agreed that global warming exists one goeengineering idea has began gaining widespread acceptance, and also gaining detractors, is launching tons of sulfur dioxide into the earths upper atmosphere. The Sulfar dioxide once in earths upper atmosphere will cause a chemical reaction that will partially deflect the suns rays , effectively and immediately halting global warming.

This idea was first proposed in 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson’s science advisory committee, which offered one solution to climate change, reflect sunlight away from earth.

While sulfur dioxide is seen as an approach that would have an immediate impact on global warming it also has drawbacks that many see this method as a last resort. Estimates show that it would cost 1 Billion dollars to launch the sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere and depending on the altitude it would only last 1-2 years before it would need to be reintroduced. Additionally, potentially harmful side effects could result such as acid rain and other unforeseen complications by messing with a complex eco system.

While both sides debating the positive and potentially negative effects of geoengineering if the earth keeps warming at the current levels it may become our only option. This has been Elizabeth Chambers for LivingGreenChannel.com with your Eco-Friendly update.