Check the risks before trying to give the planet a sunscreen

Geo-engineering must be regulated and studied to avert accidents

- FAYE D. FLAM

More than a dozen private companies around the world are looking to profit from extreme measures to combat global warming—filling the sky with sunlight-blocking particles, brightening clouds or changing the chemistry of the oceans. We live in precarious times when it's not hard to find the technology and money to change the Earth's climate. The problem is that nobody knows how to control the unintended consequences.

Some scientists who've studied and modeled the complexity of Earth's oceans and atmosphere say any 'geo-engineering' scheme big enough to affect the climate could put people at risk of dramatic changes in the weather, crop failures, damage to the ozone layer, international conflict and other irreversible problems.

Environmental lawyer David Bookbinder is more afraid of geo-engineering than he is of climate change. "The consequences of geo-engineering could happen a lot faster and with much less warning," he said. "And could provoke a really bad geopolitical crisis."