A recent news article explains a potential reason as to why our past “little” ice age occurred. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) suggests that “an unusual 50-year-long episode of four massive tropical volcanic eruptions triggered the Little Ice Age between 1275 and 1300 A.D.” (1) These eruptions released sulfates and other aerosols that increased the reflectivity of the atmosphere, reducing incoming solar radiation thus cooling the earth. However, this sparked interest in terms of current possible solutions toward the opposite effect: that is, global warming; a highly debated topic in today’s society.
There is much concern over the increase of the earth’s average surface temperature due to greenhouse gases; to the point where geoengineering is becoming a very important field. In fact, some fairly recent farfetched ideas to cool the earth have been discussed, some of which include increasing the number of trees to remove carbon dioxide, or releasing aerosols such as sulfates into the atmosphere using blimps, mimicking what a volcanic eruption would do but on an evenly distributed and global scale. Some even believe that releasing millions of mirrors into our orbit to reflect sunlight may be a solution to cool the earth!
To illustrate a brief idea behind geoengineering, consider this YouTube video:
What really needs to be considered though is if we were to proceed with some of these proposed ideas within the geoengineering field, will we cause more harm than good? Can we use previous data from events such as the volcanic eruptions mentioned earlier to predict how a large input of aerosols can affect industries? Of course, these questions and many more are all under investigation using very powerful computer climate models, as climate is a very difficult phenomenon to predict and understand.
Reference:
1. Was the Little Ice Age Triggered by Massive Volcanic Eruptions?” Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120130131509.htm>.
