Geo-engineering proposed as solution to climate change-Editorial-OPINION-The Times of India

James Lovelock's thesis of the Earth being one big living organism struck the right chord. It confirmed the butterfly effect theory: action anywhere is bound to affect life everywhere. Lovelock has since changed tack:
He recommends geo-engineering as the only radical way to counter global warming.

Scientific studies and reports, including the one released recently by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, conclude that though geo-cyclical changes in climate are natural, for the first time, climate change is happening because of human activity.

So, Lovelock and others now argue that since humans are wrecking the planet with technological advances, we need to deploy radical technology to counter our earlier actions.

Planetary-scale engineering ideas include placing, in geo-stationary orbit, a giant sunshade assembled with millions of tiny reflector spacecraft to reflect sunrays away from earth.

Another involves spreading tiny aerosol particles in the upper atmosphere to block off sunlight. Never mind that it's a health hazard or that it could widen the ozone hole.

Let's bombard the oceans with iron particles to speed up carbon dioxide absorption, say others. Or create gigantic artificial trees designed to absorb CO2 that will be piped away and stored in underground reservoirs.

No matter that one earthquake or tsunami could throw it all back at us with greater potency. The possible consequences of using radical — and prohibitively expensive — technology are as harmful or worse than doing nothing about runaway global warming.

So why not get back to basics? When the allopathic system of medicine became popular, healing was put on the fast track: Bombard the body with medicines like antibiotics, get rid of the disease, never mind the consequences.

Targeted medicine tended to ignore the body-mind holistic entity that traditional systems of medicine addressed.

Often, allopathic remedies turn out to be worse than the disease they set out to oust. We've diseased the planet through our actions.

Let's not, however, take recourse to radical 'cures' that might make the problem worse than it already is.