History of statospheric injection proposals . .


-- 1974: Mikhail Budyko proposed injecting sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere to cool the earth (like volcanoes)
-- Early 1990s: Edward Teller and collaborators proposed putting designer (nanotech) particles into the stratosphere to deflect sunlight
-- Teller was father of the H-bomb, principal architect of “Star Wars” Defense Initiative, and inspiration for Dr. Strangelove

-- 1992: The National Academy of Sciences issues a detailed study on geoengineering options, including a cost-benefit analysis for each option
-- 2006: Paul Crutzen (Nobel Prize winner for ozone hole) says we should consider it
-- The scope and speed of climate changes due to increasing CO2 -- coupled with the lack of any progress on mitigation
– requires sulfate aerosol geoengineering solution be seriously considered

[link to www.atmos.washington.edu]

Stratospheric Sulfur Injections
•  Designed to imitate volcano eruptions
•  Inject a sulfate aerosol precursor (such as sulfur dioxide SO2) into the stratosphere that then forms sulfuric acid solutions & eventually small particles.
•  These aerosols increase earth’s albedo by reflecting solar radiation back to space.
•  When injected really high up & if the particles remain small, they take a long time to fall out (months).
•  Cheap compared to some estimates of mitigation costs, 10-20 billion $US/year