You couldn’t make this stuff up even if you tried.

Dumping chemicals in the ocean? Spraying saltwater into clouds? Injecting reflective particles into the sky? Scientists are resorting to once unthinkable techniques to cool the planet because global efforts to check greenhouse gas emissions are failing.

These geoengineering approaches were once considered taboo by scientists and regulators who feared that tinkering with the environment could have unintended consequences, but now researchers are receiving taxpayer funds and private investments to get out of the lab and test these methods outdoors. 

The shift reflects growing concern that efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions aren’t moving fast enough to prevent the destructive effects of heat waves, storms and floods made worse by climate change. Geoengineering isn’t a substitute for reducing emissions, according to scientists and business leaders involved in the projects. Rather, it is a way to slow climate warming in the next few years while buying time to switch to a carbon-free economy in the longer term.

Three field experiments are under way in the U.S. and overseas.

Essentially, this is an effort at geoengineering trying to test the effectiveness of experimenting with a variety of methods, like changing ocean chemistry, in hopes of cooling the Earth. The Wall Street Journal also reports that one other experiment involves shooting particles 60,000 feet into the air and another to enlarge and brighten clouds to increase reflecting sunlight in hopes of cooling the Earth’s atmosphere.

Two years ago, scientists hypothesized that cat litter could be used as a tool to fight climate change too. The Journal says scientists concluded a clay-like compound with a zeolite component could be added to it in order to absorb methane gas making it a less harmful greenhouse gas after moisture was applied to it.

The above products or concepts are thought-provoking in many ways, but are ultimately nonsensical. But they make about as much sense as Los Angeles painting some of its streets white or Phoenix, Arizona by adding a sealant on its roads that absorbs, rather than reflecting, summer heat.

None of these so-called solutions will have any significant impact and even critics are warning about potential hazards of injecting chemicals in the ocean including possibly even spray sea salt in the atmosphere (like harming crops and sea life, or altering weather patterns) hoping to somehow cool the planet. Earth’s climate is always changing and there isn’t any amount of experimentation that will be able to prevent the inevitable. Consequently, humans will have to adapt like we’ve always done for thousands of years rather than come up with ideas in hopes of trying to alter or control the climate.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay