Onlya couple of years ago, geoengineering seemed like science fiction. Somescientists talked about cooling the planet using massive shields to reflectsunlight back into space or by loading the atmosphere with aerosols(汽雾剂 [ ??r?s?l]), but few thought of theseplanetary-scale projects as real contenders(竞争者) foraverting climate catastrophe. But perhaps because thechallenge of mitigation is now fully recognized geoengineering has gone mainstream. Increasingly, scientists areturning their attention to it: last month at the Asilomar conference centre inMonterey, California, experts met for the first time to consider how the fieldcan be regulated. Meanwhile, governments are holding parliamentary hearings onthe subject and venture capitalists are looking to it as an investmentopportunity.
I don t especially want to work on geoengineering. But now that thegenie is out of the bottle, I feel I have to, saysclimate modeller Raymond Pierrehumbert of the University of Chicago in EliKintisch s Hack the Planet,one of the first books to cover this burgeoning ([ b?:d??ni?]增长迅速的,发展很快的)subject for apopular audience. Though potentially capable of rapidly reducing temperatures,the numerous technologies that come under the geoengineering umbrella wouldprobably have unintended and potentially disastrous consequences. Despite its promise and perils(危险,冒险), however, geoengineering is a virtual([ v?:tju?l]事实上的,实际上的,实质上的 )unknown among the general public, so Kintisch s book and another,Jeff Goodell s How to Cool the Planet, both published this month, have come at a crucial time. These twofast-paced tours through the science of geoengineering will help inform growingdebates about whether governments should fund large research projects intoclimatic cooling and about how the various methods might be tested.
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