Scientists have come up with a way to avert climate catastrophe: how diamond dust can save the Earth

Scientists have come up with a new way to help avert a climate catastrophe. According to scientists, diamond dust has the ability to cool the Earth.

In a modeling study, experts report that the annual release of 5 million tons of diamond dust into the stratosphere could cool the planet by 1.6ºC – enough to prevent the worst effects of global warming. However, this scheme will not be cheap, Science writes.

Until now, to stop global warming, scientists have proposed a method of injecting huge amounts of small particles into the stratosphere – the second layer of the atmosphere – to deflect sunlight and create a cooling effect. Typically, aerosol injections into the stratosphere include sulfur particles.

But this method can come with its own set of climate-related risks. According to scientists, injecting sulfur particles into the air can have the opposite effect to the one intended and provoke stratospheric warming.

If sulfur particles are problematic, scientists have begun looking for an alternative. The researchers developed a 3D climate model to simulate how aerosols made up of different materials react in the atmosphere. This included aerosols made of aluminum, calcite, silicon carbide, anatase and rutile, as well as diamond and sulfur dioxide.

In the study, sulfur dioxide gave the worst performance, while diamond took first place, showing the best result in reflecting solar radiation.

However, the price is becoming an obstacle in the application of the diamond method. Experts estimate that an innovative way to stop global warming using diamond dust will cost almost $200 trillion by the end of this century. To put this in perspective, World Bank data shows that the total GDP worldwide was $105.44 trillion in 2023.

"Studies like this that weigh the pros and cons of different geoengineering materials are really valuable. You need to understand the physics of potential particles at the initial stage in order to talk about broader impacts," said Shuchi Talati, executive director of the Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering.

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