It proposes that spraying about 5 million tonnes of diamonds into Earth's upper atmosphere annually for 45 years could lower global temperatures by 1.6 °C.
Benefits of using diamond dust
- Enhanced Properties: It reflects light and heat effectively, remains airborne longer, and is less likely to clump together in atmosphere
- Safer Alternative: Unlike sulfur dioxide, which poses risks like acid rain and ozone depletion, diamond dust is chemically inert
What is Geoengineering /Climate Engineering ?
- It is large-scale intervention in the Earth's climatic system, with an aim of reducing global warming.
- There are two main categories of geo-engineering:-
- Carbon Dioxide Removal: It reduces CO2 in the atmosphere by enhancing carbon sinks of the ocean/terrestrial biosphere or by directly capturing CO2 from the atmosphere.
- Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS): uses chemical processes to capture and separate and then store CO2 directly from ambient air.
- Ocean fertilization: Addition of nutrients(e.g iron) to enhance the growth of phytoplankton that remove CO2.
- Solar Radiation Management : It offsets effects of greenhouse gases by causing earth to absorb less solar radiation.
- Stratospheric aerosol injection: Injecting reflective particles such as sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect incoming radiation
- Marine cloud brightening: injection of salt spray into shallow marine clouds to brighten them, increasing their reflection of sunlight
- Carbon Dioxide Removal: It reduces CO2 in the atmosphere by enhancing carbon sinks of the ocean/terrestrial biosphere or by directly capturing CO2 from the atmosphere.
Concerns associated with Geo-engineering technology
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