Considerable progress has been made to move to renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar power, and electrification of motor vehicles in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There have also been a few"carbon capture" pilot projects undertaken to remove carbon compounds from the atmosphere. Despite these efforts, it will take at least a few decades to solve climate change.
Air temperature measurements after volcanic eruptions attest to this phenomenon. Mt Pinatubo’s volcanic eruption in 1991 cooled the Earth by 0.5-degree C. It has been said that we just need more Pinatubos to counter global warming!However, there are also risks associated with SO2. When SO2 reacts with water, oxygen and other chemicals it forms an acidic aerosol, commonly known as"acid rain.
It begs the question: Can artificial injection of SO2 reverse global warming? The idea would be to fully offset the contributions of CO2 with SO2. At first glance, this approach seems feasible since it only takes one gram of SO2 to offset one ton of CO2! The most promising and perhaps the only way to do that is sending SO2 to the stratosphere — safer than current releases of SO2 into the lower atmosphere.
SO2 injection holds promise as a potential climate intervention strategy to reverse global warming by reflecting sunlight away from the Earth's surface. The nature of it entails the risks and uncertainties of"meddling" with nature. Over-reliance on SO2 injections could also detract from efforts to address the underlying drivers of climate change.