Geoengineering

Geoengineering refers to the human engineering of natural systems, and is considered as a radical mitigation strategy. In contrast to other mitigation strategies such as developing clean energy sources or increasing energy efficiency, geoengineering strategies focus on reducing the earth's temperature or greenhouse gas concentrations post-emission, rather than preventing emissions in the first place.

Geoengineering Proposals

The Royal Society in the UK has published a series of papers outlining some geoengineering options and suggesting experiments to test them. Proposals include¹:

Fertilizing the oceans with iron, as this is the limiting nutrient, in order to encourage plankton blooms which will then comsume more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Reflecting sunlight back to space to cool the planet using increased pollution, particulates or tiny mirrors.