Dusting the Sky With Diamonds to Cool the Planet??

Geoengineering — hacking Earth’s climate system to reverse global warming — often sounds a bit preposterous, whether we’re talking about deploying giant space mirrors or dumping a bunch of iron filings into the ocean. The latest proposal? Dusting the stratosphere with billions of dollars worth of powdered diamond.

Yes, you heard that right. It might actually be time to move to Mars.

The new diamonds-in-the-sky geoengineering scheme isn’t the work of crackpots. It comes from a team of respected Harvard scientists, and it was published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. What’s more, it could actually work. It’s actually a variation on another idea geoengineering proponents have tossed around for years — spraying sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect and scatter the sun’s energy.

It’s Not a New Idea

The idea of cooling the planet with sulfate was inspired by the observation that large volcanic eruptions often have a rapid and dramatic cooling effect on Earth’s climate. Among other things, these eruptions belch tremendous amounts of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. Sulfur dioxide spreads around the globe quickly, creating a haze that blocks incoming sunlight. If volcanoes are doing this naturally, can’t we just mimic that process to undo some of the global warming damage we’ve caused?