In light of growing concerns over the warming climate, climate scientists have proposed something that not even science-fiction writers could have imagined themselves – spraying chemicals into the atmosphere to supposedly deflect some of the sun’s warmth using "stratospheric aerosol injection" (SAI). Logistically, this operation would cost billions of dollars to cover the costs of special planes, chemicals, and labor. Its potential lies within its ability to “hold down global average temperatures, potentially staving off increasingly deadly climate-change impacts such as heatwaves.”

Many people remain skeptical of its benefits despite its ingenuity, which is well needed in these desperate times. The operation would only be successful if it was constantly maintained and there are many potential risks. These include, but are not limited to, changes in “rainfall patterns that could spur worsening hunger to rapid, uncontrollable temperature rise if the technology's use is suddenly stopped.”

Critics are also concerned about how this would play out geopolitically – how would divide up the atmosphere amongst separate nations? And if one wealthy country had the means to run this operation on their own, such as China, India, or the United States, should they be expected to? Promoting SAI might also incidentally give environmental polluters an “unwarranted green-light to carry on” their usual activities, as SAI would only treat the symptoms of the problem, instead of the actual root of it. Which begs the question of, how do we make sure that those responsible for the problem are the same ones that are fixing it?

Capitalism, an ideology that promotes a cycle of endless economic growth and expansion beyond its resource limits, and its proponents, have been identified as the primary driver of global warming. Capitalism is what encourages celebrities to have their own private jets to skip long traffic lines (check out this one case report that details the top 10 celebrity CO2 'offenders'). It also incentivizes corporations to dump toxic waste into rivers or pollute the air without investing in cleaner energy sources or proper disposal techniques.The United States’ military itself, one of the largest polluters in the world, has a carbon footprint that exceeds those of 140 countries alone - and that’s not even accounting for the rest of the country! All of these things happen at the expense of the environment.

So while sun-dimming technology could buy us more time to reverse the effects of climate change, we must acknowledge that at best, it will only remedy the symptoms of global warming. To tackle global warming at its root, we must address capitalism at whole. Here’s some food for thought: Dr. Genevieve Guenther, a climate-communications expert, tweeted on the limitations of innovation: “The idea that we can ‘overshoot’ 1.5 C and then reverse ecological damage later with carbon dioxide removal is not empirical science, but capitalist ideology, which claims, falsely [emphasis added], that any negative externality of growth is temporary and can be overcome by innovation.”