Why choose MEER as a solar radiation management strategy?
Dr. Lisa Doner
Dr. Lisa Doner on the challenges of conveying the science behind the MEER project to people without a scientific background.
Ground-based
Ground-based SRM as MEER proposes is a strategy that can stop rising temperatures both locally and globally essentially instantly upon implementation.
Temperature control
MEER is a strategy that can inhibit temperature rise before severe consequences are unleashed.
Carbon Footprint
MEER's strategy is extremely efficient from a CO2 standpoint: the carbon and energy footprints of the manufacture and implementation of solar reflectors is very low when compared to other mitigation schemes.
MEER is the only project that respects the limited time, energy, and material resources available to balance earth's energy.
Passive Technology
MEER technology requires no energy once deployed in the field: the reflectors are passive and do not need any power source in order to function.
Efficiency
MEER's strategy is the only such strategy that can use recycled materials, exclusively. There is currently enough PET going into landfills to fulfill annual material requirements for our solar reflectors.
Accessibility
MEER is cheap and simple enough to be employed democratically: virtually any community or nation can adopt this strategy on their own, even if they are not wealthy.
Any mitigation scheme has to account for the aerosol pollution of the northern hemisphere which reduces global warming by reflecting sunlight back to space. This "global dimming" is transient and could disappear in a few days like the smoke that it is, leaving the Earth fully exposed to the heat of the global greenhouse.
James E. Lovelock
"We are in a fool's climate, accidentally kept cool by smoke."
Dr. Ye Tao
Dr. Ye Tao on why we have to develop mitigation and adaptation that is feasible whilst also being sustainable.
"The evidence from tipping points alone suggests that we are in a state of planetary emergency.
This is an existential threat to civilization."
Lenton, Rockstrom, Gaffney