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Can Sulphur dioxide stop global warming?

15/Sep/2006: Can sulphur dioxide, pumped in to the stratosphere, save this planet from global warming? Yes, says a scientist from the U.S National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Tom Wigley, a climatologist at the U.S National Center for Atmospheric Research, believes that pumping sulphur dioxide in to the stratosphere would produce aerosols of sulphuric acid, which could reflect sunrays shading the planet, just like the ash clouds from volcanic eruptions.

Sulphur dioxide, a pollutant in the atmosphere, released by power plants, industries and by burning fossil fuel, is responsible for many respiratory illnesses, lung and heart diseases in humans, apart from causing acid rains that threaten crops and other vegetation in land. Wigley’s computer models suggest that injecting sulphur dioxide molecules in to the stratosphere, at regular intervals ranging from one to four years, will produce a cooling effect similar to the one produced by the ash clouds formed when Mount Pinatubo in Philippines, erupted in 1991.

However, pumping sulphur dioxide in to the stratosphere, which is 16kms above the earth’s surface, could prove to be a costly task. This idea was earlier proposed some three decades ago, but was rejected immediately, as many believed that altering natural processes could prove disastrous. Wigley, whose research on this topic was published in the journal ‘Science’, said that injecting SO2 in to the stratosphere could serve as a long-term solution to global warming, if technologies that could carry out this process economically are developed.

One of the ways to get sulphur dioxide in to the stratosphere is to send numerous planes with a cargo of sulphur dioxide gas and release it in to the stratosphere. This method could cost millions of dollars, but by mixing compounds of sulphur in airplane fuel, can directly release sulphur dioxide in to the stratosphere at a much cheaper cost. However, this method could pollute the atmosphere with SO2, but Wigley feels that the pollution caused would be negligible, as his model require only 10% additional SO2 (for the entire project) than what is released today by burning fossil fuels.

If Wigley’s model is implemented, global warming could be stalled for a couple of decades, buying us time to work out more economic solutions to tackle global warming.

Kesavan Siva

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