Geoengineering, the climate and Europe's legitimate skepticism

Rumors about the possibility of darkening the sun to save the climate and other forms of geoengineering are becoming more and more insistent, but Europe isn't buying it.

In a legendary episode of the animated series of Simpsons (the 25th of season 6, to be precise), Mr. Burns, owner of the nuclear power plant that employs half of Springfield, including Homer Simpson, decides to block out the sun.To do so, he installs a huge disk with which he eclipses the star and throws the town into darkness.There is something atavistic in the desire of a powerful person - a king, an emperor, a billionaire - to influence the surrounding environment, to the point of hiding the sun:it is a pure, superhuman, divine power, we could say.

The powerful and the control of sunlight

In recent years, however, the idea of ​​darkening the sun - with methods very different from those of Burns, of course - is much discussed in light of the environmental and climatic upheavals underway, which are a consequence of the use of fossil fuels and other substances pollutants from humans.The increase in the concentration of CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere which affects the greenhouse effect, but also the warming and acidification of the oceans, together with the melting of glaciers and the extremes of atmospheric weather and weather:all of this represents an enormous risk for humans and terrestrial ecosystems.And while there are those who try to solve the age-old problem through a radical and certainly cheaper energy transition and transformation in favor of clean and renewable sources, there are also those who propose more radical solutions.“Is it hot? What if we stopped the sun, somehow?”.

What is geoengineering and who wants to block the sun

At the end of June the head of the European Union's climate policy Frans Timmermans, now resigned, he opposed geoengineering projects applied to the changing climate, supporting that “no one should conduct solo experiments with our planet.”From a technical point of view, even a dam or a work like the Mose of Venice they can be considered geoengineering works since they modify the geological environment of the Earth to obtain results of a certain type.What worries Timmermans is obviously something else, such as the projects - in many cases experimental - of climate and geoengineering especially solar.The first category includes technologies for capture and the storage of greenhouse gases, such as CO2, which has been talked about for some time now:these are machines capable of capturing CO2 molecules from the atmosphere and transforming them into something else.Such as, for example, waste or resources that can in turn be used in other ways.

Bill Gates and the others

It is a sector in full transformation in which many are investing to mitigate the effects of gas in the atmosphere (among the main causes of rising temperatures).A recent discovery by a team from the University of Sydney it seems having doubled the capacity to "extract" CO2 from the atmosphere. Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI (ChatGpt's company), Bill Gates And George Soros these are just some of the billionaires who have invested in companies in the sector.Last March, the European Union itself set an ambitious goal:reach 50 tons of CO2 removed from the atmosphere and stored underground.The decision was thought to inspire competition among energy and industry companies.

The two gases used for geoengineering

We still don't know when the capture of CO2 - which itself consumes a lot of energy - will become a sustainable business and capable of having a favorable impact on the environment.What is certain is that this is not the most worrying form of geoengineering:with his words, in fact, Timmermans was referring to solar geoengineering, that is, the shielding of the sun.In 2021, Gates supported a Harvard project that wanted to spray some calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) above Scandinavia to measure its ability to reflect solar rays, counteracting the increase in temperatures.Other companies are doing tests with another gas (obviously still non-toxic), thesulfur dioxide.

Geoengineering, for many, is an unacceptable risk

This type of "solar" geoengineering is considered by some of its supporters to be an inconvenient and risky ally, but necessary for the survival of humanity.Above all, it is seen as an ancillary solution to a deeper energy transformation.As the New Yorker magazine wrote in a item on the topic:“Blurring the sun to cool the Earth is a desperate idea, but we are close to trying to do it.”Europe's declaration is therefore to be included in a general debate on the environment and starts from the assumption that "geoengineering is discussed and explored in many parts of the world", despite being "an issue with considerable risks and global implications".It must therefore be treated "in the right way and at the highest possible international level".Not left to individual companies.