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Earth

Earth sunshade would not rewind the climate

28 May 2008

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

ANYONE clinging to the notion that we can wipe the slate clean of all our climate mistakes by deflecting the sun’s rays with space mirrors is in for a disappointment.

Dan Lunt of the University of Bristol, UK, and colleagues carried out the most detailed climate-modelling study to date on the impact of a sunshade. They simulated Earth’s climate under three scenarios: pre-industrial times; a future climate with atmospheric carbon dioxide at an extreme level of four times pre-industrial values; and a sunshaded geo-engineered climate with the same high CO2 levels but solar radiation reduced by 4 per…

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