科学家欲用巨型气球为地球降温

来自英国牛津、剑桥、布里斯托以及爱丁堡等四所大学的科学家目前正在进行一项改变气候工程，计划将一个巨型氦气球投放在空中，通过软管向其输送化学粒子，希望这些粒子可以将太阳光反射回太空从而达到为地球降温的效果。据介绍，这项工程的原理与火山喷发后，火山灰上升入大气层形成制冷效果类似。科学家们表示，如果将十个这样的气球投放在空中，每年向它们输送1000万吨化学粒子的话，那么两年内全球气温就有可能下降2摄氏度。下个月，科学家们将率先将一个62英尺（约19米）的气球投放在距离地面0.5英里（约805米）的空中，然后向其输送小水滴，以检测该项技术是否可行。如果该工程获得批准，科学家们将会制作一个温布利球场那么大的气球，将其投放在海面上空。

Floating 12 miles above our heads, this Wembley Stadium-sized helium balloon tethered to a ship may one day help save the planet from global warming.

British scientists are investigating whether an ordinary hosepipe can be used to shoot particles into the atmosphere – like an erupting volcano – and cool down Earth.

A prototype balloon has been built and will be hoisted into the air next month from a disused airfield in Norfolk in a £200,000 experiment.

The idea is that millions of tiny chemical particles will act as a mirror and reflect the Sun’s rays to stop the planet heating up.

Produced by scientists at Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Edinburgh Universities, the 660ft-long balloons would be positioned far out to sea if the plan is approved.

They say just ten balloons – pouring ten million tons of material into the stratosphere every year – could achieve a 2c drop in global temperature in two years.

Next month’s test will use a smaller, 62ft balloon, suspended about half a mile above the ground and using a hose to pump out harmless water droplets to see if the technology works.

Details of the £1.6million three-year project, funded by a Government grant, were presented at the British Science Festival at the University of Bradford.

Dr Matt Watson of Bristol University, who is leading the Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering project, said: ‘We are doing a feasibility study only to see if it will work, we are not advocating it as a good idea.’

Volcanoes, which pump clouds of sulphate droplets into the sky when they erupt, have been shown to cool the climate.

Environmental groups warn geo-engineering may prevent global efforts to reduce carbon emissions and may affect the ozone layer and rainfall.