Natural solutions to climate change

Fifty years ago, humans harboured the hubristic idea that they could alter the weather and climate to their advantage, perhaps to prevent future ice ages or to induce rainfall in drought-stricken regions. these high-flying hopes were eventually doused by reality; today, we have the more humble objective of merely keeping the climate stable—in particular, mitigating the impact of greenhouse gases (gHgs). But this is an equally daunting task and one that necessitates political action and widespread cultural change, as well as scientific progress. although progress on the political front is stalling—uS president george W. Bush announced in april 2008 that he would postpone any measures to reduce the release of cO2 into the atmosphere until 2025 (Stolberg, 2008)—there is some optimism about using nature itself to achieve this goal.