One scientist hopes to engineer the climate with antacid

Climate scientist Zhen Dai
in her Harvard lab.

To help cure the planet’s ailments, Zhen Dai suggests antacid. In powdered form, calcium carbonate—often used to relieve upset stomachs—can reflect light; by peppering the sky with the shiny white particles, the Harvard researcher thinks it might be possible to block just enough sunlight to achieve some temperature control here on Earth. Dai’s work calls for a custom-­designed test balloon that, pending an independent committee’s green light, is set to release up to a kilogram of calcium carbonate 12 miles above the US, in what will be the first solar geoengineering experiment in the lower atmosphere. Small onboard propellers will stir the payload into the air.

Though this one’s highly localized, expansive sun-dimming schemes carry risks. Crops may shrivel, and developing countries might disproportionately suffer the side effects. Dai has spent her career thinking about the environment—she has helped purify water in Haiti and once designed a machine to scoop up oil after spills. Global warming, she asserts, requires the pursuit of every available option. “Solar geoengineering could give us some flexibility. It’s not so different from anything else we’ve done in the world,” she says, suggesting that ancient irrigation was environmental modification too.

Read the Wired story by Rebecca Heilweil - “One scientist hopes to engineer the climate with antacid.”