Global warming may be temporarily stopped if we place dust into the atmosphere. Is this being considered?

Question

I heard a scientist say that we could temporarily stop global warming immediately if we shoot dust into the atmosphere. He said that the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo on 1991 placed a lot of dust in the air, which partially blocked out the sun over a large area, which in turn caused the average temperature of the earth to cool by about 1 degree Celsius. I think that this is a great idea. We could use a water soluble dust so that asthmatics will not be affected as badly. The dust will settle within a year, so there is no risk of permanent effects. We could keep doing this as often as needed until we choose to stop emitting greenhouse gases. The dust could be shot into the upper atmoshpere with a specially made cannon, or perhaps a rocket that explodes at the proper altitude. I think that we urgently need to pursue this idea, as the effects of global warming are alarming.

Answer 1

If I'm thinking of the right scientist, it wasn't exactly dust, but rather sulfur dioxide. This is what Mt. Pinatubo released. It is now a common pollutant according to the cnn.com article and would need to be replaced every two years because it gets stripped from the atmosphere in the form of acid rain. The last thing we need is more acid rain. Additionally, the scientist who made the propasal is "not enthusiastic" about it. At this point, it seems like a last ditch effort if we don't do anything about releasing greenhouse gases now. Better to just start cutting emmissions I'd say. Why add even more pollutants to the air?

Answer 2

It might work in theory, but I imagine to much plant life would be adversely affected from lack of direct sunlight.

This probably isn't noteworthy, but in the story The Matrix, the humans clouded the skies in an attempt to remove the machines' primary energy source.

Simply cutting down greenhouse gases today will save a lot of trouble down the road. Continuously darkening the skies is going to take quite a bit of dust collection.

Answer 3

Ok firstly where would we get all this dust from and secondly this sounds like a pretty stupid idea shooting dust into the amosphere that wouldnt work the dust would just come down as soon as it was shot up and did you not think that many people would not want loads of dust up in the sky. What are they going to do when it falls down vacum there lawns?

Answer 4

I really don't think many people are trying to do GOD'S work by messing with nature. Didn't we do enough to this planet already?