Solar geoengineering: a climate mitigation trick from ‘Blood Hunt’?

This is how the world ends.

The opening line to Jed Mackay, Pepe Larraz, and Marte Garcia’s Blood Hunt #1 chills to the bone, as the vicious father of all vampires tells us that Earth’s carefree days in the Sun are over. Varnae is an ambitious, confident, and calamitous villain who’s cast a spell that blocks all light from reaching the surface. All around the world, wielders of Darkforce energy are being drained for his magicks, spilling like blood into the sky until the whole planet is enveloped in inky darkness. And with the arrival of eternal night comes a feeding frenzy of vampires, as Varnae’s sickness spreads across Marvel Earth.

Our planet Earth is also sick: it’s running a fever. Just weeks ago, the World Meteorological Organization confirmed the planet has warmed by 1.5 degrees Celsius (about 2.3 F) over the past 125 years, and 2024 was the hottest year in recorded human history. The 10 hottest years of all time are the last 10 years.

High temperatures worldwide aren’t the only symptom. Wildfires are devastating neighborhoods, heavy rains during hurricane landfalls are washing out roads and homes, and extreme heat is a killer outpacing some modern pandemics. We are stuck with the warming we’ve caused and people are suffering, and if recent extreme events are any indicator, the skies ahead of us will be dark indeed.

Can we treat the planet?

Marvel Comics

A suite of ideas have been suggested as stop-gap measures to slow or halt climate change. “Geoengineering” is the use of technology to purposely intervene to counteract global warming. These ideas range from the mundane (machines that pull carbon dioxide directly from the air) to the fancifully sci-fi (giant space mirrors). But one proposal is eerily similar to Varnae’s plan to spread the Darkforce.

Some have suggested humans should deliberately release highly reflective aerosols — tiny solid particles suspended in air — into the atmosphere, at high altitudes. These particles would reflect part of the Sun’s rays back out to space and keep our planet cooler, offsetting some of the warming we’ve caused. This is sometimes specifically called “solar geoengineering,” and it’s been studied extensively by scientists and governments.

This plan isn’t without risk, though. Solar geoengineering doesn’t help our acidifying oceans, it might be unpredictable and hard to direct, and it could harm the ozone layer. And once the process has begun, aerosols would need to be released consistently without any long pause (to stop would mean climate change comes roaring back). So while we might be able to offset the heat we’ve added to Earth, we won’t be able to offset all of the harm. Solar geoengineering is one possible solution to the climate challenges our species is facing, but it isn’t the silver bullet we might want it to be.

So what other options do we have? What can we do about climate change? We need immediate, aggressive, and sustainable reductions in burning fossil fuels. How can you help?

You can talk about it.

Talk about climate change

Only through collective, concerted effort can we work to reduce carbon emissions and avoid worse climate outcomes in our future. But we have to talk to each other as a necessary first step. It may seem like a brief conversation with a friend at your local comic book shop can’t possibly make a difference, but it can achieve so much.

Talking about climate change helps us realize we’re not alone in being concerned about the problem — many people are worried about climate change, but not many are yet voicing their concerns! Climate conversations help us identify shared values, building empathy, trust and unity, and enabling communities to organize around what matters to them. Ultimately, when we name this critical problem together, we have taken the first step to solving it.

In the fifth and final chapter of Blood Hunt, chaos reigns on Earth. Varnae has been revealed as the nigh-omnipotent villain behind it all, the Avengers are on the ropes, and Darkforce continues to cloud the skies. At the same time, in a quieter set of panels, Clea and the Doctors Strange and Doom have met to discuss a solution to their problems. Trapped in astral form, Strange is unable to cast the spell that will end the darkness and free the world from Varnae’s twisted influence. The heroes have come to Doom to talk with him and seek his help, in the hope that their conversation will end with a miracle.

While Varnae held the Avengers helpless in his dark sway, Strange, Clea, and Doom discussed. They came together, talked about the problem, built trust, organized a plan, and implemented a solution, as Doom used his newfound power as Sorcerer Supreme to clear the air and end the Darkforce’s blotting out of the Sun. In the end, it was a heroic conversation that saved the world.

Every February, to help celebrate Darwin Day, the Science section of AIPT cranks up the critical thinking for SKEPTICISM MONTH! Skepticism is an approach to evaluating claims that emphasizes evidence and applies the tools of science. All month we’ll be highlighting skepticism in pop culture, and skepticism *OF* pop culture.

AIPT Science is co-presented by AIPT and the New York City Skeptics.