Some scientists have come up with yet another extreme climate change solution. We’ve already seen solutions that involve putting a giant sunshade in orbit, as well as others that want to mine Moon dust and create a “solar shield.” But now, some scientists think we should also try dehydrating the stratosphere.
The strategy is outlined in a new study published in Science Advances. According to reports from Gizmodo, some scientists say that the idea isn’t complicated. Basically, we just need to pull water vapor from the stratosphere. This move is being recommended because water vapor acts as a greenhouse gas in Earth’s atmosphere.
This causes it to absorb radiation from the Sun, and then that radiation is emitted back to the surface of the planet. If we dehydrate the stratosphere and remove the water vapor there, it could help control how much radiation is being trapped in Earth’s atmosphere.
The important thing to remember here, the researchers say, is that this isn’t a magic solution that’s going to make climate change go away. It’s simply a small step towards helping to right the rising global temperatures. The study focuses on using ice-nucleating particles to condense the water vapor into ice.
This would essentially dehydrate the stratosphere, and we would only need to remove around three percent of the water vapor found in our planet’s atmosphere to start seeing a global effect, the study outlines. The researchers say that going about this solution would only provide some wins in the battle against climate change. They say there are no cons or side effects to worry about.
But pulling off this plan will still require some new engineering capabilities to help inject the ice-nucleating particles into the stratosphere. Sure, we have planes capable of reaching that high, but we would still need to ensure it won’t have any weird side effects we don’t know about yet.
Still, coming up with solutions to climate change is an important next step in helping to slow down the rising global temperatures we keep seeing.