Various governments, universities, investors and environmental activists are conducting extensive research into various forms of geoengineering, writes The New York Times. ‘Climate cowboys’ are trying to counteract climate disruption and purposefully cool the planet to counteract the effect of greenhouse gases.

Many spectacular ideas have been launched to stop global warming, but critics say they are not without danger. They could disrupt regional weather patterns and damage crops and local economies. There are also fears that rogue investors or countries could implement such techniques without any external control or protection.

The development of an alarm system is still in its infancy, the scientists emphasize in the newspaper. A number of balloons have also disappeared over the ocean and in the Alaskan wilderness, but more and more balloons are going up in various locations. If there are enough balloons to perform measurements, the initiators hope to succeed in their plan.

Universities, foundations, private investors and the federal government have started to fund a variety of efforts, from sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to adding iron to the ocean in an effort to store carbon dioxide on the sea floor.

“Every year that we have new records of climate change, and record temperatures, heat waves, it’s driving the field to look at more alternatives,” said Robert Wood, the lead scientist for the team from the University of Washington that is running the marine cloud brightening project. “Even ones that may have once been relatively extreme.”

Brightening clouds is one of several ideas to push solar energy back into space — sometimes called solar radiation modification, solar geoengineering, or climate intervention. Compared with other options, such as injecting aerosols into the stratosphere, marine cloud brightening would be localized and use relatively benign sea salt aerosols as opposed to other chemicals.