Climate Engineering isn't Popular with the Public: Climate Change

Climate change is a huge issue and scientists are constantly trying to think of new ways to solve it. Yet some methods are more popular than others. Now, researchers have found out that the public isn't a big fan of climate engineering, the deliberate large-scale manipulation to counteract climate change.

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is partially to blame for the increasing temperatures across the globe. Burning fossil fuels has exacerbated the issue and has continued to push the temperatures ever upward. Yet climate engineering has the potential to solve this problem; it could reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere or reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface in order to slow temperature rise.

Yet these methods are somewhat controversial. Because the concept of climate engineering is such an issue, there's a need to consult the public and understand their concerns. That's why the scientists took a closer look at what the public thought.

"Previous attempts to engage the public with climate engineering have been exploratory and small scale," said Malcolm Wright, one of the researchers, in a news release. "In our study, we have drawn on commercial methods used to evaluate brands and new product concepts to develop a comparative approach for evaluating the public reactions to a variety of climate engineering concepts."

So what did they find? It turns out that the public has a strong negative view toward climate engineering. Those that are positive toward it favor approaches that reduce carbon dioxide over those that reflect sunlight.

"It was a striking result and a very clear pattern," said Wright in a news release. "Interventions such as putting mirrors in space or fine particles into the stratosphere are not well received. More natural processes of cloud brightening or enhanced weathering are less likely to raise objects, but the public react best to creating biochar (making charcoal from vegetation to lock in CO2) or capturing carbon directly from the air."

The findings reveal that the public prefers other methods to climate engineering. This means that policy makers need to be careful if they plan to introduce climate engineering in the future.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Climate Change.