Scientists say tons of diamond dust in the stratosphere could cool the Earth

Did you read it here? Ulhar Digital About some crazy plan to create shields between the Earth and the Sun in an attempt to cool our planet. The most recent one was a bit extravagant (to say the least), and involves a material that's very popular here: diamonds. Or rather, its dust.

You can already imagine that this would have a cost as big as your audacity, right? But this procedure has already been analyzed in a study recently published in Geophysical Research Letters. The research not only analyzes the hypothesis but also confirms the quantity required. The conclusion is that dumping 5 million tons of diamond dust into the stratosphere every year could cool the planet by 1.6 degrees Celsius.

This reduction will be sufficient, at least for now, to mitigate the worst consequences of global warming, but it may cost about $200 trillion over the remainder of this century. The cost appears much higher than other measures to reduce emissions, or even other geoengineering schemes involving aerosol materials, but it did not prevent the presence of diamonds in the analysis.

The study also serves as a warning about the importance of taking urgent measures to avoid the catastrophic climate scenario depicted by the current state of the Earth in the future, as research indicates that it may be too late to reverse the situation.

Diamond dust in the stratosphere: what is the effect?

This research is another investigation into the use of so-called geoengineering to inject aerosols into the stratosphere, which involves using the most diverse types of materials to cool the stratosphere.

The dynamics behind this can be found in examples we have already seen in nature, for example, volcanic eruptions. Tons of sulfur thrown into the atmosphere during the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 cooled the planet by up to 0.5 degrees Celsius for several years. But sulfur also has environmental consequences, capable of generating acid rain and endangering life on Earth. This could still cause widespread climate disruption.

Therefore, the study analyzed some alternative materials that can cool the Earth without the harm of sulfur. The scientists then built a 3D climate model that analyzed how certain properties behaved in the form of aerosols in the stratosphere, and indicated which would be most efficient, taking into account the processes of deposition and coagulation as well as the time of each impact.

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They evaluated the effects of each particle over 45 years in the model, with each test taking more than a week in real time on a supercomputer. Ultimately, the most efficient material turned out to be diamond dust, which proved very good at reflecting radiation while remaining airborne and preventing clumping. Other competitors were aluminum and calcite.

However, this does not mean that diamonds have become the new darling of geoengineering. Although more efficient than sulfur, its cost is currently considered completely impractical, making its poorer cousin more viable in this sense.

Sulfur, because it is widely available in nature, will have a lower cost, in addition to being a gas, which makes it easier to use. “I think it's interesting to explore these other materials,” says Douglas McMartin, an engineer at Cornell University who studies climate science, when asked. sciences. He adds: “But if you ask me today what will be implemented, it will be sulfur.”

This does not mean that sulfur will be used. Geoengineering is rife with controversy and part of the scientific community considers the idea of ​​applying tons of materials into the stratosphere without full awareness of the consequences irresponsible. The most plausible conclusion is that the least harmful way to deal with global warming is to cut emissions. But, as we said at the beginning of the text, time is short.