Fed up with a lack of action on climate change, some students are researching dimming the sun despite the pushback from other scientists.Yashas Raj and Jake Chapman are hunkered down in a basement laboratory at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering — tinkering with a handheld nozzle they hope will one day be capable of shooting trillions of microscopic water droplets into the sky every second to brighten clouds over the Arctic Ocean. Boosting cloud reflectivity by adding the mist, they say, would cut the amount of sunlight reaching the water’s surface and slow the melting of Arctic sea ice.The two PhD students spend much of their time here in the Seawater Lab, mulling over revolutionary technologies that could curb Earth’s warming trajectory. Their work has drawn contempt from some campus peers who denounce such research aimed at manipulating the world’s climate over fears of unforeseen environmental consequences.AdvertisementAdvertisementBut such criticism has faded into background noise since the U.K. government last year allocated millions of dollars in funding to investigate climate geoengineering. It marked the first time a state funding body had invested significant money in geoengineering research, mainstreaming the once-taboo field and offering some validation to young students.Raj and Chapman are part of a growing wave of Gen Z scientists and engineers across the world pursuing higher education in climate g …
