Although it first sounds like it’s a plot straight out of a science fiction blockbuster, scientists are actually real about it.
They’ve suggested permanently dimming the sun in South Africa to save her from the deadly droughts.
This scheme would involve pumping immense amounts of gas into the atmosphere above Cape Town to maintain the local water supplies.
In a way, it does bring into reality the plot of a 2007 sci-fi movie in which the scientists head off on a mission to reignite the dying sun with a nuclear bomb in the future, i.e. in 2057.
The Scientists Hop It Will Reduce the Water Crisis
The experts who suggested this from the University of Cape Town are hopeful that this method would lower the high risk of water crisis in the city.
The region fears over a moment in the future when there won’t be sufficient water for everyone. And, with the climate crisis, the risk of dry spell in Cape Town triples by 2100, found a research.
Although Controversial, the Plan may actually Work, Claim the Scientists
In a study published in the Environmental Research Letters, the scientists suggested a controversial method to prevent this catastrophe.
The plan is considered controversial because of the climate and geopolitical implications.
Their suggestion is to inject sulfur dioxide gas into the upper atmosphere of the earth above the city.
This gas would create an immense cloud above the city which will reflect sunlight and dim the environment on the ground below.
Scientists believe that this tactic could lower the risk of a Day Zero drought affecting the city by 90 percent.
Cape Town was once close to the Day Zero in 2017 when a 1-in-284-year drought put the city’s dams at below 13 percent capacity.
Why It’s not Easy to Get such a Plan Approved?
However, getting this new plan approved would be a challenge for scientists.
Namely, experts before have also put forward the idea of releasing gases into the atmosphere to lower the side effects of global warming, but authorities and other experts considered it a dangerous messing with the climate system.
What’s more, one 2018 paper by science advocacy group Climate Analytics said that implementing such system would probably stir up a major conflict between nations.
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