A Combined Mitigation/Geoengineering Approach to Climate Change

Projected anthropogenic warming and increases in CO2 concentration present a twofold threat, both from climate changes and from CO2 directly through increasing the acidity of the oceans. Future climate change may be reduced through mitigation (reductions in greenhouse gas emissions) or through geoengineering. Most geoengineering approaches, however, do not address the problem of increasing ocean acidity. A combined mitigation/geoengineering strategy could remove this deficiency. Here we consider the deliberate injection of sulfate aerosol precursors into the stratosphere. This action could substantially offset future warming and provide additional time to reduce human dependence on fossil fuels and stabilize CO2 concentrations cost-effectively at an acceptable level. Global warming could be mitigated by the injection of sulfate aerosol precursors into the atmosphere, thus increasing cloudiness. Global warming could be mitigated by the injection of sulfate aerosol precursors into the atmosphere, thus increasing cloudiness.