The idea is that sulfur dioxide particles could reduce the amount of sunlight hitting the surface of the Earth. The Mexican government, however, was not convinced and when it found out what Luke was doing, it shut the whole thing down. "Solar geo engineers have made things very interesting for sci-fi writers and very tricky for policy experts," Colbert says.
Solar geoengineering — the idea of cooling the planet by deflecting the sun’s rays — is so risky that scientists and policy experts can’t even agree on whether to research it.
This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Matt Collette and Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, and hosted by Noel King.
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained
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