The EU wants to crack down on rogue efforts to alter the atmosphere

Blue skies and high-altitude cirrus clouds above south London, on 2nd June 2021, in London, England. — Photo by Richard Baker / In Pictures via Getty Images

It’s surprisingly easy for someone to mess with the makeup of Earth’s atmosphere, regardless of the consequences that could have for our planet. Now, as part of its plans to address security risks posed by climate change, the European Union is calling for talks on a potential international framework on how to treat deliberately atmosphere-altering technologies, AKA geoengineering.

The idea with geoengineering is to deploy new technologies that might be able to cool the planet down. The tactic that’s caused the most uproar lately is called solar geoengineering, which are basically attempts to manipulate the planet’s ability to reflect sunlight back into space.

The issue is that scientists aren’t quite sure how much good that would do or...

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Pandora Stories lets artists add commentary to their own playlists

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