An unlikely friend for a common foe.

Whilst geo-engineering, and specifically stratospheric sulphate injection, has very transparent advantages and disadvantages, yesterday I came across a paper and geeked out, massively. Xia et al., conducted research studying possible SSI scenarios and their influence on terrestrial rates of photosynthesis. The graph below extracted from the paper shows an RCP6.0 simulation as well as the G4SSA scenario which simulates injection of 8 Tg SO₂ yr^-1 throughout tropical regions between 2020 and 2070. The blue line is indicative of the latter simulation. Via increased photosynthesis rates the vegetation sink would proposedly increase in capacity by 3.8 Gt Cyr^-1, and in 2014 global industrial carbon emissions were estimated at 35.7 Gt Cyr^-1. The storage capacity of Earths vegetation could increase by over 10% of emission output. Obviously, the study carries multiple error estimates and to assume such research is fool proof would be naïve and this is noted, however, such research acts as a great argument against the mask geo-engineering perpetrates. Personally, I am very excited to follow the direction of such research by Xia et al., as this novel study has provided a strong foundation in which increased photosynthesis rates via SSI could be implemented further. Photosynthesis truly is an unlikely friend for Stratospheric Sulphate Injection.

A graph illustrating the photosynthesis rate for i) the RCP6.0 scenario run (red line) and ii) the G4SSA SSI injection scenario (blue line), extracted from Xia et al., 2016.