Science & Technology

Plan to dim the sun could choke airline passengers with toxic chemicals

By T.K. Randall
July 4, 2026

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) Climate change remains a hotly debated topic and with temperatures rising across the world, some scientists have proposed radical new ways to cool things down.

"One of the proposed climate intervention schemes is to emulate large volcanic eruptions by producing a cloud of sulphuric acid droplets in the stratosphere to reflect sunlight and cool Earth," Professor Alan Robock of Rutgers University told Mail Online.

There are, however, some very significant drawbacks associated with this idea.According to researchers, this technique could effectively render parts of our atmosphere toxic - meaning that airliners, for example, may find themselves flying through clouds of sulphuric acid.

Such exposure would undoubtedly prove hazardous to the passengers and crew.

"Because there is no rain in the stratosphere, the atmospheric layer above the troposphere where we live, the droplets would last 50 times longer than surface pollution," said Prof Robock.

Solving the issue of climate change, it would be fair to say, is unlikely to be realistically achieved by poisoning our atmosphere with even more chemicals and pollutants.

Source: Mail Online

Tags: Airline, Global Warming