News Article - 02 September 2008
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Extreme solutions may be required to solve the problem of global warming, according to scientists.

These solutions include geo-engineering options, like putting large quantities of iron into the ocean to increase plankton growth and seeding artificial clouds to reflect sunlight away from the Earth.

A reluctance to deal with greenhouse gas emissions means atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are on course to pass 650 parts-per-million, which could raise the global temperature by 4 degrees Celsius.

The claims were made in a collection of scientific papers published by the Royal Society, which had an introduction written by Brian Launder of the University of Manchester and Michael Thompson of the University of Cambridge.

"While such geoscale interventions may be risky, the time may well come when they are accepted as less risky than doing nothing," they wrote.

"There is increasingly the sense that governments are failing to come to grips with the urgency of setting in place measures that will assuredly lead to our planet reaching a safe equilibrium."

Professor Launder delivered a lecture at City University London in April, where he said that measures being adopted by the primary emitter nations were not enough to deal with CO2 emissions.

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