Why Have Researchers Proposed a Giant Sunshade in Space as a Climate Change Fix?
As Earth experiences record-high temperatures and insufficient efforts to address climate change, a group of astronomers and physicists is suggesting a novel solution: a colossal sunshade deployed in outer space. The concept involves placing a massive sun-blocking device between Earth and the sun, aiming to counteract global warming by blocking around 2 percent of solar radiation. According to scientists, this could lower the Earth's temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit), helping to keep the climate within manageable boundaries.
The idea of sunshades to mitigate climate change has been on the fringes of discussions for years, but as the climate crisis intensifies, interest in such solutions is growing. Various proposals for sunshades include scattering dust into space, creating shields made of "space bubbles," and tethering solar shields to repurposed asteroids. The latest initiative, led by Yoram Rozen, a physics professor at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, aims to build a prototype shade to demonstrate the feasibility of the concept.
The proposed shade would need to cover an area of about a million square miles, equivalent to the size of Argentina, to achieve the desired impact. Given its weight of at least 2.5 million tons, launching such a massive shade into space is not feasible. Instead, the project envisions deploying a series of smaller shades that would cast diffused shade onto Earth, blocking the required percentage of solar radiation.
Rozen's team is ready to design a prototype shade measuring 100 square feet, seeking funding in the range of $10 million to $20 million for the demonstration. While supporters of sunshades emphasize that they don't replace the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they see them as a potential tool to stabilize the climate alongside other mitigation strategies. Critics argue that the concept is astronomically expensive and may not be implemented in time, emphasizing the importance of focusing on reducing emissions and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
