Climate Engineering

Paul Crutzen, the Nobel laureate of 1995 in chemistry for unravelling the chemical mechanisms behind the ozone layer's destruction, initiates a heavy debate among climate scientists: In a forthcoming article of the journal Climate Change he proposes an artificial injection of sulphur into the upper atmosphere. Thus, sulphuric aerosols or particles will reflect sun light or lead to cloud formation to reflect the light. Climate will cool down. For Crutzen who is the very senior scientist in climate change his initiative is some kind of last resort. He doesn't believe politics to succeed in cutting greenhouse gases. Well, as Samiha Shafy reports in Der Spiegel (10.7.2006) Crutzen has critics in his community. On the one hand they say the climate system is too complex to consider a simple measure to fit for everything. Nobody knows exactly how the ten million tons of sulphur needed will behave in altitudes between ten and 50 kilometers. On the other hand you might think: well, there's something at hand to geo-engineer our climate, take it easy, relax and return to business as usual.