Can diamond dust help climate change Though the UK recently closed its last coal power station , the cumulative effects of burning polluting hydrocarbons for hundreds of years won’t just disappear overnight. A huge quantity of greenhouse gases are present in the atmosphere that traps solar radiation and heats up the Earth in the same way that you would insulate your home. To prevent temperatures from rising further, a research team led by Sandro Vattioni at ETH Zurich proposes that we could stop some of the sun’s warmth from reaching our planet altogether by reflecting it’s light away. Can animals adapt to climate change? The forgotten element: Why oxygen should receive more airtime in the climate change conversation The only catch is that it would require 5.5 million tons of diamond dust to be released into the atmosphere – every year. Logistics aside, a 2020 study by Yale College lecturer Wake Smith concluded it would cost the princely sum of $175 trillion. According to the World Bank (via Data Commons) , the GDP of the entire planet in 2023 was $105 trillion. Speaking in an interview with ETH News , Vattioni cites that aerosols – small particles found in the atmosphere – “…have a cooling effect on the climate as they reflect solar radiation” This already occurs in nature today and in the past. Though the initial effects of the meteor impact that wiped out dinosaurs 66 million years ago were devastating, it was the sheer volume of materiel ejected into the atmosphere causing a cooling effect that delivered the final blow. These days, as Vattioni points out, we usually see atmospheric aerosols after volcanic eruptions which spew sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere. These particles then turn into sulphuric acid aerosols, but as sulphuric acid may suggest, it is […]
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