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Sprinkling diamond junk into the atm could offset almost all the warming have by humanity since the industrial rotation and " purchase us some time " withclimate change , scientists say .
New enquiry indicates that shooting 5.5 million tons ( 5 million metric tons ) of diamond rubble into the stratosphere every twelvemonth could cool the planet by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit ( 1 degree Celsius ) thanks to the stone ' reflective properties . This extent of cooling system would go a foresightful way to limiting world-wide thaw that begin in the second half of the 19th century and now add up to about 2.45 F ( 1.36 C),according to NASA .
Injecting reflective particles into the atmosphere could offset some of the warming caused by climate change, but the uncertainties are enormous.
The research contributes to a theatre of operations of geoengineering that ’s bet forways to fight mood changeby reducing the amount of vim reach Earth from the sun .
" It ’s a very controversial matter , " cogitation co - authorSandro Vattioni , a researcher in experimental atmospheric physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich ( ETH Zurich ) , told Live Science . " There are many scientist who want to nix doing inquiry — even research — on the topic . "
To mitigate the sunshine ’s warming effect , researchers have long suggested using tiny particles , or aerosols , that reflect the sun ’s re back into space . Injecting these aerosols into the stratosphere — the layer of Earth ’s atmosphere that posture between 7.5 and 31 miles ( 12 to 50 km ) above the planet ’s surface — means they will stick in the ambiance for at least one year before strike back to Earth , the investigator say .
The new study did not estimate the cost of producing diamonds for geoengineering, but synthetic diamonds would likely be cheaper than mined diamonds, Vattioni said.
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Stratospheric aerosol injectant ( SAI ) accept inspiration from cooling that sometimes take away place after large volcanic eruption . vent exhaust huge clouds of sulphur dioxide . This gas is change into sulphuric acid in the stratosphere , thencondenses to form fine sulfate aerosolsthat contemplate sunlight back to blank space — preclude it from get to Earth and warming the planet .
Previousresearchhasexplored the plausibilityof pumping sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere to combat clime change , but there are several undesirable side effects to consider , Vattioni state . Sulfuric acid aerosols soak up a considerable amount of solar and tellurian heat , meaning they could set off warming in the stratosphere that may impact the winds that circle within it . Any perturbations could then ripple through the troposphere — the layer of the atmosphere below the stratosphere and above Earth ’s surface — causing disruptions in global precipitation patterns and circulation , he said .
Commercial airplanes and experimental aircraft, such as NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (pictured above) can operate in the stratosphere.
This is where diamonds could come in handy , Vattioni said .
In amodeling studypublished in October , he and colleagues detect that infield corpuscle would make neither stratospheric warming nor any other illustrious kerfuffle . That ’s because diamond powder is super reflective and does n’t clump together , which is the reason why some other materials immerse passion alternatively of station it back to space .
A few hundred mellow - elevation aircraft would require to fly around Earth emitting particles incessantly to reach the amount required for cool , Vattioni said , but such consideration were beyond the scope of the work .
" We just look at diamonds and we did n’t cogitate about costs or how these particle could be mined , " he said . " But obviously these are also questions that need to be consider [ to determine ] if it ’s workable or not to do something like this . "
In a young study , publish Monday ( Dec. 16 ) in the journalEnvironmental Research : Climate , the investigator confirmed that diamonds are , theoretically at least , the best cloth for stratospheric injection .
The squad compared the chill efficiency of baseball field particles with that of aluminum and calcite particles using an Earth arrangement model that simulates the full clime response of an intervention . They get hold that the quantity of diamond dust need to cool the planet by 1.8 F — 5.5 million gobs per twelvemonth — was about one - third the amount of other materials needed to achieve the same cooling outcome .
But the costs and energy demands of these different material remain unclear . A2020 studyestimated that SAI with sulfur dioxide from 2035 through 2100 would be $ 18 billion per year , and the toll for Al and calcite is potential to be in the same approximate range , Vattioni said . The bill for diamonds would be much high , with the 2020 bailiwick calculate a total cost over 65 age of $ 175 trillion .
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" In this obedience , calcite particles might be a better choice , " Vattioni said , adding that calcite is a major component in limestone , and therefore well find in Brobdingnagian quantities across the public .
There are tremendous uncertainties around SAI , and scientist are nowhere virtually implementing it . Some expert areopposed to conducting this type of researchat all due to theunforeseen consequences it may have , and because they say it siphons fund away from other climate enquiry .
But " not doing this enquiry would also be to look aside from a potential technology that could at least help to palliate some risks , " Vattioni said .
SAI and other geoengineering strategies are not solutions to clime variety , but they " could grease one’s palms us some time , " Vattioni enounce .
" We really break away the risk of passing some irreversible climate tipping points and ecological tipping point , and SAI could potentially avail to avoid passing these tipping points until we have reached the nett zero destination , " he say .
