# Making sense of solar engineering

- Show: [Catalyst](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst)
- Published: 2022-06-16
- Length: 43m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2022-06-16-making-sense-of-solar-engineering

## Summary

Dan Visioni, a climate modeler at Cornell University, explains the technical mechanisms and governance challenges of solar geoengineering, specifically stratospheric aerosol injection, marine cloud brightening, and space mirrors. He argues that while these methods are significantly cheaper than Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), they carry unknown ecological risks and raise critical ethical questions about who controls the planet's temperature. Visioni suggests that solar geoengineering could serve as a temporary 'peak shaving' tool to buy time for emissions reductions and CDR scaling, provided robust international governance frameworks are established to prevent rogue deployment.

## Chapters

- [0:02](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2022-06-16-making-sense-of-solar-engineering#t=2) Introduction: Catalyst and Solar Geoengineering Overview
- [5:44](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2022-06-16-making-sense-of-solar-engineering#t=344) Defining Geoengineering and Solar Radiation Modification
- [12:42](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2022-06-16-making-sense-of-solar-engineering#t=762) Stratospheric Aerosol Injection and Volcanic Analogues
- [18:07](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2022-06-16-making-sense-of-solar-engineering#t=1087) Ecological Side Effects: Ozone, Precipitation, and Ecosystems
- [22:23](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2022-06-16-making-sense-of-solar-engineering#t=1343) Alternative Methods: Marine Cloud Brightening and Space Mirrors
- [29:41](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2022-06-16-making-sense-of-solar-engineering#t=1781) Current State of Research and Scientific Progress
- [35:05](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2022-06-16-making-sense-of-solar-engineering#t=2105) Solar Geoengineering vs. Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)
- [40:22](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2022-06-16-making-sense-of-solar-engineering#t=2422) Governance, Ethics, and the Risk of Rogue Actors

## Topics

- [Energy & climate tech](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/energy-and-climate-tech)
- [Policy, trade & tariffs](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/policy-trade-and-tariffs)
- [AI & machine learning](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/ai-and-machine-learning)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Cornell University (company)
- Mount Pinatubo (other)
- Harvard (company)
- IPCC (other)
- Energy Hub (company)
- Bloom Energy (company)
- Arcadia (company)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Stratospheric Mirrors from Aerosol Injections: Make Sunsets' Approach to Cooling Earth](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hardware-to-save-a-planet/2025-03-13-stratospheric-mirrors-from-aerosol-injections-make-sunsets-approach-to-cooling-e) (Hardware to Save a Planet)
- [Cooling Earth by Using Mirrors to Reflect Sunlight with Dr. Ye Tao, Founder and Executive Director of MEER](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hardware-to-save-a-planet/2024-07-18-cooling-earth-by-using-mirrors-to-reflect-sunlight-with-dr-ye-tao-founder-and-ex) (Hardware to Save a Planet)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2022-06-16-making-sense-of-solar-engineering. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Catalyst.