Overview
- Published today in Scientific Reports, the Columbia-led review integrates engineering, economic and governance constraints and concludes stratospheric aerosol injection is substantially more uncertain, difficult, risky and expensive than idealized studies imply.
- Researchers report that results vary sharply by altitude, latitude and season, with polar-focused releases likely to disrupt tropical monsoons and equatorial releases potentially altering jet streams, underscoring the need for centralized coordination they judge unlikely.
- Volcanic analogs such as Mount Pinatubo show temporary cooling alongside harms including Indian monsoon disruption, stratospheric warming and ozone depletion, raising concerns about acid deposition and other side effects from sulfate-based approaches.
- Material assessments find diamond infeasible, zirconia and rutile titania likely to strain supply chains and raise costs, and only calcium carbonate and alpha alumina abundant enough yet still challenged by how they would be dispersed at scale.
- At required sub‑micron sizes, many mineral candidates agglomerate into larger, less effective aggregates, increasing climatic uncertainty and undermining assumptions common in model simulations.