Carbon capture and "dimming" the sun: Climate geoengineering poses technical and ethical dilemmas

The climate crisis is arguably the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced, and to limit warming to manageable levels, time is our biggest opponent. While the transition from fossil fuels to cleaner renewable energy is now gaining steam, the pace is simply not fast enough to head off the harmful impacts that are already being felt throughout the world.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5ºC" — the international community's benchmark guide to averting climate disaster — says to reach the goal of staying below 1.5ºC of warming requires "rapid and far-reaching transitions" in our energy, industrial and other systems that would be "unprecedented in scale." In other words, the task is herculean.  So, many experts say drastic times call for drastic measures, arguing that technology like climate geoengineering should be part of the solution toolkit. Proponents say that while switching to renewable energy, driving electric vehicles and restoring forests can get us far, that's simply not enough. The IPCC agrees, and cites one specific type of geoengineering — carbon capture and sequestration — as a necessary part of the suite of solutions.