Over vacation I read Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. Unlike many other recent books tackling the climate crisis, it is entirely focused on the controversial issue of geoengineering through solar radiation modification (SMR). The basic idea of SMR is to let slightly less sunlight into the Earth’s lower atmosphere where it can heat things up. Even a tiny decrease in solar radiation will have a big impact on global warming.
To put upfront where I stand on this: I first wrote about the need to research geoengineering in 2009. Since then Susan and I have funded some research in this area, including a study at Columbia University to independently verify some chemistry proposed by the Keith group at Harvard. The results suggest that using calcite aerosols may not be so great for the stratosphere which includes the Ozone layer that protects us from too much UV radiation. That means spreading sulfites is likely better – this is what happens naturally during a big volcano eruption, such as the famous Mount Pinatubo eruption.
Artificially putting sulfur into the stratosphere turns out to be the key plot device in Termination Shock. Delays by governments in addressing the climate crisis have a rich individual start to launch shells containing sulfur into the stratosphere. In a classic life imitating art moment, Luke Iseman, the founder of Make Sunsets, is explicitly referring to reading Termination Shock as an inspiration for starting the company and releasing a first balloon carrying a tiny amount of sulfur into the stratosphere.
Termination Shock does a good job of neither praising its lone ranger character for attempting to mitigate the climate crisis, nor condemning him for kicking off something with obviously global impact. Instead, the plot extends to several nation states that might be positively or adversely affected and the actions they take to either support or interfere with the project. While these aren’t as fully developed as I might have liked (the book still clocks in at 720 pages), they do show how different the interests on SMR might wind up across the globe.
In that regard I loved that India gets a starring turn, as I believe we are about to see a lot more of India on the global stage. I only wish Saskia, Queen of the Netherlands, played a more active role, like the female protagonists of Seveneves do. To be fair, she is a very likable character, but mostly with events happening to her. As always with books by Neal Stephenson, there are tons of fascinating historical and technical detais. For example, I had no idea that there were tall mountains in New Guinea.
Overall Termination Shock is a great read and an excellent complement to Ministry for the Future in the climate crisis fiction department (can’t believe I didn’t write about that book yet).
