This last week we have learned about rising CO2 levels in and how they have increased over the last 100 years. As someone who is very interested in geoengineering, I found the article “A Sunshade to help Southern Africa Cope with Climate Change?” from The Huffington Post that discusses C02 levels and unique ways to combat global warming. The article goes on to say the ultimate goal is to reduce C02 emissions but some countries rely too much on fossil fuels to make that happen right now. Geoengineering may be an answer to that. Using geoengineering, scientists could inject the atmosphere with S02 which acts as a kind of sunblock that reflects back some of the suns radiation.  Reflecting back some of that radiation would lower temperatures in Southern Africa and reduce evaporation from crops and water supplies. I thought this was a good article to discuss because it could give some people the idea that global warming is not a problem anymore if we can just change the weather whenever we want. This is not the case, however. SO2 is a harmful pollutant and if it were released into the atmosphere constantly, humans and animals would suffer many health consequences. SO2 can be an option for the short term in some areas prone to drought but reducing CO2 emissions should still be the primary concern.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-conversation-africa/a-sunshade-to-help-southe_b_9047336.html