The UK’s gamble on solar geoengineering is like using aspirin for cancer

Solar geoengineering is a scheme to cancel global heating by putting pollutants in the atmosphere that dim the sun by reflecting some sunlight back to space.

In one widely touted proposition, fleets of aircraft would continually inject sulphur compounds into the upper atmosphere, simulating the effects of a massive array of volcanoes erupting continuously.

The fix is more like taking aspirin for cancer but leaving the underlying malignancy to keep growing.

He is an author of the 2015 US National Academy of Sciences report on climate intervention - Michael E Mann ForMemRS is presidential distinguished professor at the University of Pennsylvania . He is the author of Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons from Earth’s Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis .