Major plan to deal with climate change by geoengineering the Earth would not work, scientists reveal

Farmer Wayne Dunford walks through a dusty field after the Barley crop that was planted in it failed October 26, 2006 in Parkes, Australia (Ian Waldie/Getty)

The Earth could not be changed to save the environment, according to a new paper exploring the possibilities of "geoengineering" the planet to protect us from the worst effects of climate change.

Injecting aerosols into the atmosphere is one of the great hopes for mitigating the effects of climate change. Proponents argue that it would help counter most of the changes to the climate, as well as being cheap and quick to implement.

It would work by limiting the amount of sunlight that could get through the environment. In essence, the aerosols injected into the atmosphere would work something like a shade, reducing the amount of light and keeping the worst effects of climate change at bay.

But the new research suggests that the plan would wipe out crop yields to such a degree that it would undo any of the positive benefits gained by limiting the effects of climate change. While it might provide some protection it would also damage agriculture deeply, they write in the new paper published in Nature.

Scientists looked at the aftermath of two volcanic events to understand how the geoengineering might change the Earth. Both events had a similar effect to the "veil" concept and helped it inspire it – the volcanic eruptions threw similar chemicals up into the stratosphere.

Researchers looked at what happened to aerosol levels, solar irradiation data and recorded crop yields in the aftermath of the eruption of El Chichón in Mexico and the explosion of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. They studied different kinds of crops and looked at how they coped with those natural disasters.

They found that what benefit the veil would offer to crops by blocking out heat would be offset by the damage done by not getting enough sunlight. As such, the plan would not mitigate the effects of climate change on global agriculture and food security, they conclude.