Termination shock: trust our expert warnings on geoengineering's planetary risks
The article warns about the dangers of solar geoengineering, arguing that it could destabilize global climate systems if abruptly halted, and that existing expert warnings against such planetary-scale interventions should be heeded to avoid catastrophic termination shock.
Background
- **Solar geoengineering** (also called solar radiation management, SRM) refers to proposed technologies that would reflect a small fraction of sunlight back into space to temporarily cool the planet — e.g., injecting reflective particles into the stratosphere. It does not reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- **Termination shock** is the feared consequence if such a program were started and then abruptly stopped (due to war, political collapse, or accident): global temperatures would rebound very rapidly, potentially causing far worse ecological damage than a gradual warming scenario.
- The piece explains why many climate scientists and governance experts strongly oppose even researching solar geoengineering, arguing that the technology is inherently ungovernable, would create moral hazard (weakening emissions cuts), and poses catastrophic tail risks.
- This fits into a long-running debate: some see SRM as a potential emergency brake for extreme climate scenarios; others see it as a dangerous distraction that could cause irreversible harm.