By Walt Hickey Solar Geoengineering On paper, it’s simple: If you make it so less solar energy hits the Earth, you’ll reduce the amount of heat that gets trapped in the atmosphere and thus mitigate warming. The reality is obviously considerably more complicated, as we do need the sun to stay alive and actual attempts at solar geoengineering — like releasing a bunch of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere to create reflective sulfate particles — is an ethically controversial decision. The U.S. federal government has steered away from doing that due to the unforeseen risks, despite a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine that recommended a $200 million program researching it. In 2020, Congress directly ordered NOAA to develop the Earth’s Radiation Budget program, which has a