Hi, everyone. I'm John Don Van, host and moderator of Intelligent Squared US debates.

Some of our best debates ever are those where we've stretched hard to look over the horizon

at coming technologies with potential to change how we live.

Each time asking a key question, just because these technologies perhaps can work,

does that mean they should be put to work?

We've asked that in relation to, say, artificial intelligence and genetic engineering

and a number of other similar technological developments,

similar in that what once seemed far-fetched has become at least plausible

and therefore we think debatable.

Now over that same horizon, we see an idea taking shape that

it's going to take a mouthful of syllables to name, solar geoengineering.

Solar geoengineering, also known as solar radiation modification or management,

a proposed set of technologies that aims to reflect some sunlight away from Earth

and reduce the inflow of solar energy thereby partially reducing global temperatures.

Basically it's saying that the amount of heat that we get from the sun can be controlled

and in an era of concerns about climate change,

they're talking about ideas like putting reflective materials on rooftops or

putting mirrors into orbit or injecting aerosols into the stratosphere

that would effectively act like a kind of sunblock.

You get the idea. The question is, are these ideas feasible?

And if they're feasible, are they desirable?

Well, we think these questions all have the makings of a debate.

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