The Increasing Need for Research on Geoengineering Approaches to Reducing Potential Global Cooling

Interest in geoengineering has been centered on the possibility of substituting it for reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions widely promoted as a solution to hypothesized global warming/climate change. Although it would undoubtedly be both more effective and cost-effective than GHG emission reductions, a more fundamental question needs to be answered before geoengineering is seriously considered: Is it likely to be needed and under what circumstances? This article explores the likely causes, primarily astronomical in nature, of climate change, summarizes new observationally-based forecasts of future global temperatures based on amazingly accurate hindcasts over the Holocene, and then uses these forecasts, as well as previous knowledge of ice age cycles, to suggest when geoengineering might be useful in avoiding climate destabilization. It concludes that astronomical climatology can play a vital role in applying geoengineering solutions to achieve climate stabilization by highlighting future climate changes that the residents of Earth may decide they want to try to avoid or changes that are not consistent with Holocene-based expectations that may lead to a new and catastrophic ice age.